.-   GIFT   OF 
MICHAEL  REESE 


AN>  APPEAL'/ 


FROM  THE 


JUDGMENTS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

RESPECTING  THE 

m 

PART  FIRST, 

CONTAINING 

AN  HISTORICAL  OUTLINE 

OF   THEIR 

MERITS  AND  WRONGS  AS  COLONIES; 

AND 
STRICTURES  UPON  THE  CALUMNIES  OF  THE  BRITISH  WRITERS 

BY  ROBERT  WALSH,  JR. 


quod  quisque  fecit,  patitur :  autotem  icelus 
Repetit,  suoque  premitur  exemplo  nocens, 

SENEC. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PUBLISHED  BY  MITCHELL,  AMES,  AND  WHITE 

William  Brown,  Printer. 

1819 


Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania >  to  ivit. 

BE  IT  REMEMBERED,  That,  on  the  twenty-third  day  of  September,  in 
the  forty-fourth  year  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
A.  D.  1819,  Mitchell,  Ames,  and  White,  of  the  said  District,  have  deposited  in 
this  office  the  title  of  a  book,  the  right  whereof  they  claim  as  proprietors,  in 
the  words  following,  to  wit : 

"  An  Appeal  from  the  Judgments  of  Great  Britain  respecting  the  United  State? 
"  of  America.  Part  First,  containing  An  Historical  Outline  of  their  Merits  and 
"Wrongs  as  Colonies;  and  Strictures  upon  the  Calumnies  of  the  British 
"  Writers.  By  Robert  Walsh,  Jr.  Quod  quisque  fecit,  patitur :  autorem 
"  scelus  repetit,  suoque  premitur  exemplo  nocens.  SENEC." 

In  conformity  to  the  act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  entitled  "  An 
act  for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  by  securing  the  copies  of  maps,  charts, 
and  books,  to  the  authors  and  proprietors  of  such  copies,  during  the  times 
therein  mentioned." — And  also  to  the  act,  entitled,  "An  act  supplementary  to 
an  act,  entitled  '  An  act  foe  the  encouragement  of  learning  by  securing  the  co 
pies  of  maps,  charts,  and  books,  to  the  authors  and  proprietors  of  such  copies, 
during  the  times  therein  mentioned,'  and  extending  the  benefits  thereof  to  the: 
arts  of  designing,  engraving,  and  etching  historical  and  other  prints." 

D.  CALDWELL, 
Clerk  of  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania 


\ 


To  ROBERT  OLIVER,  ESQ. 

X  ^ 

OF  BALTIMORE. 

UNIVt 


DEAR  SIR, 

THIS  is  a  clumsy  volume,  and  its  tenor  may  not  be 
exactly  in  unison  with  your  opinions  and  predilections. 
I  could,  therefore,  have  wished  to  attach  your  name  rather 
to  its  intended  adjunct,  which  may  have  higher  claims  to 
regard;  but  I  am  anxious  to  improve  the  first  opportunity 
of  bearing  public  testimony  to  a  character,  which  an  ac 
quaintance  of  many  years,  has  taught  me  to  view  as  of  un 
common  worth  and  elevation.  It  is  only  a  few  months 
ago  that  your  merits  were  commemorated  in  your  native 
land,  in  a  strain  which  those  inhabitants  of  your  adopted 
country,  who  know  you  well,  cannot  deem  too  lofty,  nor 
hesitate  to  re-echo.  In  proclaiming  you  public-spirited, 
open-hearted,  and  munificently  hospitable,  the  distinguish 
ed  assemblage  in  Dublin  spoke  as  our  experience  would 
have  led  us  to  speak.  A  remarkable  strength  of  natural 
abilities,  maintained  in  full  exertion  by  an  active,  vehe 
ment  spirit,  and  the  favour  of  fortune  seconding  a  sound 
judgment  and  steadfast  faith  in  commercial  dealings,  have 
put  you  in  possession  of  an  ample  estate,  to  which  you  daily 
vindicate  your  title  by  a  noble  use  of  it  in  the  offices  of 
beneficence  and  friendship. 


IV  DEDICATION. 

I  have  another  object  in  addressing  you  thus  in  my  ca 
pacity  of  author.  It  is,  to  witness, — in  opposition  to  the 
false  relations  of  the  British  travellers, — that  the  native 
American  is  not  backward  in  recognizing  and  honouring 
the  estimable  qualities  and  just  pretensions  of  a  fellow  citi 
zen  of  foreign  birth.  We  make  no  distinctions  and  have 
no  reserved  feelings,  where  respect  and  confidence  are 
abstractly  due:  if,  blended  and  compounded  as  we  are,  the 
case  could  be  otherwise,  it  would  not  certainly  be  so  in 
reference  to  Irishmen.  With  them,  the  process  of  as 
similation  in  all  respects,  is  more  easy  and  natural  than 
with  any  other  people.  America  owes  them  much.  She 
cannot  but  sympathize  deeply  in  the  wrongs  they  have 
suffered  at  home.  In  the  same  nation  in  which  they  have 
always  found  a  tyrannical  mistress,  slie,  throughout  her 
colonial  existence^  found  a  jealous  step-mother,  and  now 
finds  a  malevolent  scold. 

I  am,  dear  sir, 

truly  and  affectionately, 
your  obedient  servant, 

ROBERT  WALSH,  JR 

PHILADELPHIA,  SEPT.  1819. 


PREFACE 
OF  THE  AUTHOR. 


1.  ABOUT  the  end  of  the  month  of  January  last,  I 
undertook  to  prepare  for  the  press,  a  Survey  of  the  insti 
tutions  and  resources  of  the  American  republic;  and  of  the 
real  character  and  condition  of  the  American  people.  A 
work  of  this  kind,  wrought  from  authentic  information, 
appeared  to  me  to  constitute  the  best  refutation  of  the 
slanders,  which  are  incessantly  heaped  upon  us  by  tire 
British  writers.  In  assuming  the  task,  I  expected  to  be 
able  to  complete  it  in  the  course  of  the  present  summer; 
and  accordingly  set  on  foot  such  enquiries  in  the  several 
divisions  of  the  Union,  as  the  design  prescribed.  After 
pursuing  my  first  arrangements  for  a  couple  of  months,  I 
discovered  that  I  had  not  duly  measured  the  delays  inci 
dent  to  the  collection  of  facts,  over  so  extensive  a  surface, 
and  through  the  agency  of  gentlemen  engrossed,  for  the 
most  part,  by  professional  affairs.  Finding  that  I  must 
allow  a  longer  term  than  was  at  first  proposed,  for  the  ac 
cumulation  of  materials,  I  fell  upon  the  plan  of  making  up. 
in  the  interval,  a  preliminary  volume,  which  should  em 
brace  a  review  of  the  dispositions  and  conduct  of  Great 
Britain  towards  this  country,  from  the  earliest  period; 
and  a  collateral  retaliation  for  her  continued  injustice  and 
invective. 

What  I  now  submit  to  the  public,  is  the  fruit  of  the  plan 
just  mentioned.     Jt  is  not  offered  as  a  digested  book;  but 


VI  PREFACE. 

as  a  series  of  Notes  and  Illustrations;  and  it  could  not  be 
other,  from  the  shortness  of  the  time  within  which  it  has 
been  composed.  The  immediate  object  required,  indeed, 
nothing  more.  I  have  to  apologize  rather  for  the  bulk  of  the 
volume,  which  exceeds  my  own  expectation;  and  is  owing 
to  the  impression  under  which  I  proceeded,  that  the  quota 
tions,  instructive  in  themselves,  and  useful  towards  eluci 
dation  and  proof,  should  not  be  curtailed  for  the  sake  of 
economizing  a  certain  number  of  pages.  As  respects  dic 
tion,  I  have  aimed  at  clearness  and  signilicancy  alone. 
What  has  been  instantly  transferred  from  the  desk  to  the 
press,  must  necessarily  be  liable  to  the  reproach  of  diffu 
sion  and  roughness.  It  is  not  a  model  of  style  or  of  epitome 
that  is  wanting  on  such  an  occasion  as  the  British  writers 
have  created,  for  the  exertion  of  our  faculties  of  literary 
defence,  whatever  these  may  be;  but  an  aggregation  of 
facts  pointedly  told,  and  the  production  in  detail  of  what 
ever  tends  to  rectify  perverse,  or  propagate  just  opinions. 

My  purpose  in  this  undertaking  generally,  is  not  merely 
to  assert  the  merits  of  this  calumniated  country;  I  wish  to 
repel  actively,  and,  if  possible,  to  arrest,  the  war  which  is 
waged  without  stint  or  intermission,  upon  our  national  re 
putation.  This,  it  now  appears  to  me,  cannot  be  done 
without  combating  on  the  offensive;  without  making  in 
roads  into  the  quarters  of  the  restless  enemy. 

I  had  long  indulged  the  hope,  in  common  with  those 
Americans  who  were  best  affected  towards  Great  Bri 
tain,  that  the  false  and  contumelious  language  of  the 
higher  class  at  least,  of  her  literary  censors,"would  be 
corrected  by  the  strong  relief,  in  which  our  real  condition 
and  character  were  daily  placing  themselves  before  the 
world.  We  expected  that  another  tone  more  conformable 
to  truth  and  sound  policy  would  be  adopted,  when  we  had 
on  our  side  the  degree  of  notoriety  as  to  those  points,  which 
usually  overawes  and  represses  any  degree  of  assurance  in 
the  spirit  of  envy  and  arrogance. 

But  the  disappointment  is  complete,  for  every  American 
who  has  paid  attention  to  the  tenor  of  the  late  British 
writings  and  speeches,  in  which  reference  is  made  to  these 


PREFACE.  VII 

United  States.  The  Edinburgh  and  Quarterly  Reviews, 
have,  within  the  twelvemonth  past,,  by  the  excesses  of 
obloquy  into  which  they  have  given  from  the  most  unwor 
thy  apprehensions,  put  beyond  question  the  insufficiency 
of  any  amount  of  evidence,  and  of  all  the  admitted  laws  of 
probability  and  reasoning,  to  work  the  reformation  to 
which  I  have  alluded. 

It  was,  too,  believed  by  many,  that  the  British  writers  ^ 
would  assign  some  bounds  to  their  attacks,  as  long  as  we 
forbore  to  recriminate;  and  it  was  thought  harsh  and  un 
charitable  to  touch  the  sores  and  blotches  of  the  British 
nation,  on  account  of  the  malevolence  and  folly  of  a  few 
individuals,  or  of  a  party,  within  her  bosom.  The  whole 
is  proved  to  be  mere  illusion.  There  is  no  intemper 
ance  of  provocation,  which  could  have  excited  more 
rancour,  and  led  to  fiercer  and  wider  defamation,  than 
we  find  in  the  two  articles  of  the  forty  first  number  of 
the  Quarterly  Review,  which  treat  of  American  affairs. 
The  whig  journals  have  begun  to  rail  in  the  same  strain: 
the  Opposition  have  joined,  with  the  ministerial  party,  even 
on  the  floor  of  parliament,  in  a  hue  and  cry  against 
"  American  ambition  and  cruelty;"  and  in  affecting  to  cre 
dit  the  coarse  inventions  of  Englishmen  who  have  either 
visited  us  for  the  express  purpose  of  manufacturing  libels, 
or  betaken  themselves  to  this  expedient  on  their  return 
home,  as  a  profitable  speculation.  It  is  enough,  that  the 
desire  of  emigrating  to  the  United  States  should  spread 
among  the  population  of  England,  in  an  extent  deemed 
invidious,  or  hurtful;  that  the  territorial  security  of  the 
Americans  on  one  side  should  appear  about  being  ren 
dered  complete,  with  some  possible  danger  to  the  stability 
of  the  British  empire  in  the  West  Indies,  to  throw  the 
British  politicians  of  every  rank,  and  denomination,  into 
paroxysms  of  despite  and  jealousy,  and  to  enlist  them  in  a 
common  scheme  of  misrepresentation  which  may  inspire 
the  British  farmer  and  artisan  with  a  horror  of  republi 
can  America,  and  the  nations  of  the  world  with  a  distrust 
of  the  spirit  of  her  government. 

We  cannot  defeat  their  purpose  as  far  as  their  country- 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

men  are  concerned;  but  we  may  guard  the  better  against 
the  effects  of  the  hatred  and  contempt  which  they  labour 
to  inculcate,  by  acquainting  ourselves  thoroughly  with  the 
true  nature  and  scope  of  their  designs.  <  If  we  have,  as  I 
verily  believe,  a  band  of  implacable  and  indefatigable  foes, 
in  those  who  direct  the  public  affairs,  and  mould  the  pub 
lic  mind,  of  Great  Britain,  we  should  be  fully  alive  to 
the  fact,  and  alert  in  using  the  means  in  our  power,  of 
restraining  the  effusions  of  their  malice.  National  an 
tipathies  are  to  be  deprecated  in  themselves;  to  excite 
them  wantonly,  is  an  offence  against  humanity  and  re 
ligion;  but  we  are  not  censurable,  if  they  are  produced 
incidentally,  by  the  course  which  self-defence  may  require 
of  us  to  pursue.  It  is  the  English  writer  who  becomes 
doubly  culpable,  if  his  pertinacity  in  defaming  the  United 
States,  be  such  as  to  leave  to  the  American,  whose  right 
it  is  to  check  this  as  well  as  every  other  form  of  hostility, 
no  resource  for  the  purpose,  but  the  exhibition  of  what  is 
odious  and  despicable  in  the  character,  conduct,  and  com 
position  of  the  British  nation. 

There  is  much  truth  in  the  old  maxim  of  the  schools— 
retorquere  non  est  respondere:  to  retort  is  not  to  reply. 
The  present  case  forms  an  exception,  however;  for  the 
British  writers  and  orators  never  throw  out  their  re 
proaches  against  the  United  States,  without  putting  Great 
Britain  in  glorious  contrast;  it  is  the  excellence,  the 
purity,  and  the  liberty,  and  the  comfort,  which  they  see 
at  home,  that,  they  would  fain  have  us  believe,  quicken 
their  sensibility,  and  embitter  the  expression  of  their  hate, 
to  the  evils  and  abuses  abounding  on  this  side  the  water. 
Thus,  to  expose  their  real  spirit  and  aims,  and  to  fortify 
the  confidence  in  our  relative  merit,  necessary  to  us  in 
this  struggle  with  systematic  detraction,  we  are  compelled 
to  investigate  and  set  forth  the  misery  and  turpitude  by 
which  they  are  surrounded,  and  the  wrongs  and  insults 
of  which  we  have  had  constantly  to  complain.  This  is 
not  mere  recrimination;  it  is  resistance  to  degrading  com 
parisons  and  injurious  pretensions;  we  tear  off  one  of  the 
many  disguises  which  our  enemies  assume  to  facilitate 


PREFACE.  IX 

f 

their  project  of  bringing  us  into  disrepute  with  man 
kind. 

It  is,  certainly,  wretched  sophistry  to  argue,  as  they  do, 
from  single  instances  of  disorder  and  vice;  and  neither  fair 
nor  charitable  to  display  only  what  is  bad  in  a  mixed  system, 
in  which  the  good  may  greatly  predominate.  We  would 
not  be  entitled  to  follow  this  example,  but  for  the  purpose 
of  repressing  it,  by  shewing  how  severely  Great  Britain 
may  suffer  in  her  turn  from  its  adoption  elsewhere.  Upon 
the  principles  of  the  logic  which  she  has  used  against  the 
United  States,  she  might  be  proved  to  be  the  most  misera 
ble  and  wicked  nation  that  has  ever  existed.  The  pub 
licity  which  she  gives  to  all  her  domestic  transactions  and 
circumstances;  the  discussion  which  her  foreign  policy 
and  administration  undergo,  in  and  out  of  parliament,  lay 
bare  all  her  vulnerable  points.  Never  before  was  such  a 
mass  of  materials  prepared  for  the  satirist  of  national  vices 
and  distempers,  as  is  to  be  found  in  the  debates  and  re 
ports  of  her  legislature,  and  in  the  innumerable  chronicles 
of  her  internal  history,  which,  as  we  there  have  it,  is  but 
a  tissue  of  the  grossest  enormities  and  the  most  cruel  dis 
tresses. 

In  endeavouring  to  establish  her  invariable  unkindness 
and  injustice  to  this  country,  and  her  liability  to  reproach 
in  an  indefinite  degree  beyond  ourselves,  on  the  grounds 
of  disparagement  which  she  is  never  weary  of  repeating, 
it  is  not  to  American  writers  and  travellers,  to  obscure  and 
vulgar  witnesses,  labouring  under  the  suspicion  of  national 
prejudice,  personal  pique,  or  gross  venality,  that  I  shall 
have  recourse;  but  to  British  authorities  of  the  highest 
standard;  to  British  historians  and  legislators,  and  even 
to  the  very  journals,  which  serve  as  the  spiracles,  through 
which  the  torrents  of  venom  are  incessantly  spouted  against 
the  American  people.  Our  accusers  "in  Great  Britain 
have  built  their  charges  upon  English  testimony,  and  that 
the  least  respectable  of  its  kind.  I  shall  be  found,  in  im 
peaching  her  in  return,  to  use  not  suspicious  foreign,  but, 
in  almost  every  instance,  unquestionable  British  state 
ments;  not  the  allegations  of  General  Fillet — quite  as 

VOL.  I.-B* 


*  PREFACE. 

trustworthy  as  those  of  the  Jansons  and  Fearons — but 
the  records  of  Parliament  and  the  oracles  of  the  British 
empire.  Here,  it  cannot  escape  the  reader,  how  much 
more  dignified  and  warrantable  the  retaliation,  than  the 
attack ;  and  that,  in  repelling  aggression  with  evidence 
derived  from  these  sources,  we  do  not  descend  to  the  level 
of  those  who  bespatter  us  with  ordure  amassed  by  natural 
or  hired  scavengers  of  their  own  blood  and  temper. 

"  The  libels  of  the  present  day,"  said  Mr.  Burke,  in 
his  retort  upon  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  "  are  just  of  the 
same  stuff  as  the  libels  of  the  past  But  they  derive  an 
importance  from  the  rank  of  the  persons  from  whom 
they  come,  and  the  gravity  of  the  place  where  they  are 
uttered.  In  some  way  or  other  they  ought  to  be  noticed." 
We  think  and  reason  thus,  in  respect  to  the  calumnies 
'with  which  we  have  been  lately  assailed  in  Great  Britain. 
All  that  is  accumulated,  for  instance,  in  the  Edinburgh 
and  Quarterly  Reviews,  in  the  articles  which  form  the 
immediate  provocation  upon  which  I  now  write,  is  an  old 
compost  of  vile  ingredients  and  impure  leven,  in  itself 
unfit  to  be  handled,  and  much  more  unfit  to  be  imitated. 
Those  journals,  however,  exert  an  unrivalled  influence 
over  the  British  public;  they  are  not  without  considerable 
authority  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  where  they  are 
widely  circulated;  they  have  credit  and  sway  with  num 
bers  of  readers,  even  in  the  United  States:  in  the  cata 
logue  of  their  authors  and  special  patrons  we  find  men  of 
eminence,  both  in  letters  and  politics;  some  who  have  a 
material  share  in  the  public  councils  of  their  country,  and 
whose  writings,  on  other  subjects  than  the  affairs  of  Ame 
rica,  possess  a  degree  of  excellence,  which  invests  the 
pamphlets  in  question  with  a  general  character  of  great 
weight  and  value. 

2.  I  will  pass  from  the  instance  of  these  Reviews  to 
another,  worthy  of  particular  observation,  on  many  ac 
counts;  in  which,  also,  the  merest,  most  hacknied  ribaldry 
respecting  America,  is  rendered  important  and  memora- 


PREFACE.  XI 

ble  by  "  the  rank  of  the  persons  from  whom  it  came,  and 
the  gravity  of  the  place  where  it  was  uttered." 

Westminster  school  is  one  of  the  principal  semina 
ries  of  classical  education,  for  the  sons  of  the  British 
nobility  and  gentry;  for  those  who  are  destined,  either 
by  birthright  or  custom,  to  become  her  legislators  and 
rulers;  to  wield  the  national  power,  and  give  the  tone  to 
national  sentiment.  It  has  been  long  the  practice,  in  this 
institution,  to 'exhibit  annually  a  Latin  play,  of  which  the 
characters  are  filled  by  the  senior  students,  about  to  be 
translated  to  one  of  the  great  universities.  The  perform 
ance  is  attended  by  a  crowd  of  great  personages — by  mi 
nisters  of  state,  dignitaries  of  the  church,  and  patrician 
families;  and  all  the  eclat  is  given  to  the  occasion  of 
which  we  can  suppose  it  susceptible.  A  Latin  prologue 
and  epilogue,  serving  as  specimens  6f  scholarship,  usually 
accompany  the  play.  In  an  exhibition  of  the  kind,  which 
took  place  about  the  conclusion  of  our  late  war  with  Great 
Britain,  the  subject  chosen  for  the  epilogue  was  emigra 
tion  to  the  United  States.  It  was  treated  in  the  form  of  a 
colloquy  between  a  person  preparing  to  embark,  and  a 
patriotic  Englishman  attempting  to  dissuade  him  from  the 
adventure.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  terseness  of  the  lati- 
nity,  but  the  virulence  of  the  abuse  lavished  upon  America, 
in  this  piece.  Whatever  the  writings  of  the  British  tra 
vellers  could  furnish,  that  was  most  injurious,  and  insult 
ing  to  the  American  people,  is  here  elaborately  condensed, 
and  imbued  with  a  new  and  more  active  venom.  The 
following  is  a  translation  of  part  of  this  classical  lampoon. 

«  DAVUS  TO  GETA. 

"Whither  do  you  propose  to  fly?  Get.  To  Hesperia  (America). 
— Da.  What!  to  that  country  which  is  beyond  the  ocean;  a  coun 
try  barbarous  in  itself  and  inhabited  by  Barbarians!  In  that  coun 
try  Geta,  Astraea  is  not  a  virgin,  but  a  virago :  sometimes,  as  report 
goes,  she  is  a  drunkard,  often  a  pugilist ;  sometimes  even  a  thief. 
Nor  is  it  easy  to  say  whether  the  tenor  of  their  manners  is  more  to 
be  admired  for  simplicity  or  elegance :  a  negro  wench,  as  we  are 
told,  waits  on  her  master  at  table  in  native  nudity ;  and  a  beau  will 
stri  p  imself  to  the  waist,  that  he  may  dance  unincumbered,  and 
with  more  agility.  Do  you  love  your  glass,  every  hour  brings  with  , 


Xll  PREFACE- 

it  a  fresh  bumper.  There  you  have  the  gum-tickler,  the  phlegm* 
cutter,  the  gall-breaker,  the  antifogmatic.  No  man  is  a  slave  there, 
for  negroes  are  not  considered  as  of  the  human  species  in  America. 
Every  man  thinks  what  he  pleases,  and  does  what  he  pleases.  The 
young  men  spurn  the  restraint  of  laws  and  of  manners:  his  own 
inclination  is  there  every  man's  sufficient  diploma.  Bridewell  and 
the  stews  supply  them  with  senators,  and  their  respectable  chief  jus 
tice  is  a  worthless  scoundrel.  Does  a  senatorial  orator  dexterously 
aim  to  convince  his  antagonist  ?  he  spits  plentifully  in  his  face ; 
and  that  this  species  of  rhetoric  may  be  more  efficacious,  tobacco 
furnishes  an  abundance  of  saliva  for  the  purpose*.  The  highest 
praise  of  a  merchant  is  his  skill  in  lying.  Then  their  amusements  1 
to  gouge  out  an  eye  with  the  thumb,  to  skin  the  forehead,  to  bite 
off  the  nose!  and  to  kill  a  man,  is  an  admirable  joke.  Believe  me, 
Geta,  even  if  the  black  vessel  of  transportation  you  embark  in, 
should  bear  you  safely  to  this  elysium  of  yours,  the  very  passage 
would  exhaust  all  your  funds,  and  your  whole  life  would  be  held  in 
pledge,  never  to  be  redeemed :  your  destiny  at  last  would  be  to 
feed  the  rats  of  a  prison^  But  come,  think  better  of  this  scheme 
while  you  have  it  in  your  power.  Let  the  ruined  man,  the  impious 
wretch,  the  outlaw,  praise  America;  if  you  are  yet  in  your  senses, 
Geta,  stay  at  home." 

The  whole  of  the  dialogue  may  be  read  in  the  Port 
Folio,  into  which  it  was  copied  in  the  year  181 6,  from 
the  English  Gentleman's  Magazine  for  April,  1815,  to 
which  it  was  committed  thus  for  circulation,  three  months 
after  the  signature  of  the  treaty  of  peace  and  amity  be 
tween  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States.  The  able 
writer  who  introduced  it  into  the  American  journal,  at 
tached  to  it  a  commentary  which  equally  deserves  to  be 
read  entire,  and  of  which  I  adopt  the  following  passages, 
as  speaking  what  is  due  from  me  to  the  occasion. 

"  Thus  it  is,  that  at  an  age  when  impressions  are  apt  to  take  the 
strongest  hold  of  the  mind, — with  the  associations  most  calculated 
to  give  vividness  and  effect  to  the  sentiments  uttered — at  the  direc 
tion  and  under  the  superintendence  of  the  reverend  preceptors  in 
the  first  school  of  classical  education  that  Great  Britain  can  boast-— 
in  the  presence,  and  with  the  sanction  of  persons  deemed  highly 
respectable  for  rank,  learning,  character,  and  station — the  young 
sons  of  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  England  are  taught  to  pronounce* 
applaud,  and  give  effect  to,  the  most  glaring  and  disgusting  false 
hoods,  and  the  most  virulent  and  vulgar  abuse  against  this  country 
and  its  inhabitants  universally. 


PREFACE,  X1I1 

"  There  is  nothing  in  the  invectives  of  the  Quarterly  Review 
more  abusive  and  flagitious  than  this  epilogue.  I  am  no  advocate 
for  keeping  up  national  animosity,  but  I  do  not  approve  of  the  doc 
trine  of  non-resistance;  nor  do  I  feel  the  obligation  upon  Ameri 
cans  of  submitting  tamely  to  the  insult,  when  the  persons  who  have 
descended  to  these  aspersions  are  themselves  liable  to  the  retort. 
Had  this  attack  been  the  hasty  effusion  of  a  political  partizan,  or 
the  witty  scurrility  of  a  writer  whose  sarcastic  talent  furnishes  his 
daily  bread,  or  had  we  been  subjected  even  to  the  mistaken  correc 
tion  of  a  well-meaning  observer,  it  might  have  been  passed  over : 
but  this,  the  studied,  deliberate  composition  of  deep-rooted  enmity, 
deserves  no  quarter.  One  style  of  reply  to  impartial  and  friendly- 
reprehension,  another  to  the  sarcastic  rancour  of  a  '  proud  and  in 
sulting  foe.' 

"  li  may  be,  as  it  seems  to  be,  the  intention  in  Great  Britain,  to 
educate  their  youth  in  sentiments  of  the  most  sarcastic  and  rancor 
ous  hostility  towards  America ;  and  I  dare  say,  the  attempt  will 
succeed ;  and  I  dare  aver  also,  that  it  will  be  met,  as  it  naturally 
must,  by  correspondent  feelings  on  this  side  the  water." 

3.  We  were  not  altogether  ignorant,  in  the  United 
States,  that  much  of  the  favour  shown  to  us,  since  the 
commencement  of  the  present  centuiy,  by  the  whig  party 
in  parliament,  and  their  connexions  out  of  doors,  arose 
from  the  relation  of  a  minority  or  opposition,  in  which 
they  stood  in  the  British  government.  Yet  we  believed, 
that  there  was  enough  of  real  cordiality  in  their  feelings, 
and  of  elevation  in  their  sentiments,  to  prevent  them,  at 
all  times,  from  countenancing  gross  misrepresentations  of 
our  condition  and  character,  and  raising  groundless  cla 
mours  against  our  political  transactions  and  views;  from 
setting  us  in  a  false  or  invidious  light,  merely  to  embarrass 
and  discredit  the  ministry,  or  to  promote  some  domestic 
ends,  such  as  those  of  checking  emigration,  and  counter 
acting  extravagant  plans  of  parliamentary  reform.  An 
attentive  observation  of  the  language  concerning  our  af 
fairs,  held  of  late  by  the  whig  journals  and  the  par 
liamentary  opposition,  has  convinced  me  that  we  were 
deceived  in  supposing  they  had  not  always  acted,  in  rela 
tion  to  this  country,  altogether  from  party  feelings  and 
aims,  and  would  not  readily  sacrifice  justice  and  truth, 
where  it  was  concerned,  to  selfish  considerations. 

There  is  but  one  interpretation  to  be  put  upon  the 


XIV  PREFACE. 

course  they  have  taken,  in  regard  to  the  execution  of 
Ambrister  and  Arbuthnot,  and  the  agreement  between 
Spain  and  the  United  States  for  the  transfer  of  the  Flo- 
ridas.  It  has  been  a  system  of  exaggeration,  not  to  say 
slander,  designed  to  bring  the  ministry  under  the  suspi 
cion  of  pusillanimity  and  supineness,  and  to  recommend 
the  assailants  to  the  nation  as  the  truer  Britons;  the  more 
spirited  assertors  and  anxious  guardians  of  her  honour 
and  interests.  This  accomplished,  it  was  immaterial  what 
feuds  and  ruinous  strife,  and  what  injustice  to  the  United 
States,  might  follow,  if  their  clamours  raised  a  ferment 
among  the  British  people,  and  thus  forced  the  ministry  to 
pursue  to  extremity  an  unattainable  redress,  and  frustrate 
a  fair  and  equitable  arrangement.  Remark  the  artificial 
tone  and  hyperbolical  representation,  so  well,  though  not 
primarily  calculated  to  produce  discord  and  aversion  be 
tween  the  two  nations, — of  leading  members  of  the  mi 
nority  in  both  houses  of  parliament. 

Mr.  Tierney  (House  of  Commons,  May  19th,  1819). 

**  There  was  one  foreign  power  to  which  he  must  direct  the  atten 
tion  of  the  house,  with  the  same  view  as  he  had  mentioned  France 
—he  meant  America; — she  was  out  of  the  pale  of  confederation; 
with  her  we  had  a  separate  treaty  of  peace ;  towards  her  we  had 
long  cast  an  eye  of  jealousy  ^  and  it  ivell  became  us  to  be  prepared 
for  the  "worst.  Let  the  house  consider  only  what  had  happened  in 
the  last  three  months.  Two  British  subjects  had  been  executed  by 
an  American  commander.  There  might  be  circumstances  warrant 
ing  his  conduct,  and  justifying,  according  to  the  law  of  nations, 
the  approbation  which  his  government  had  expressed ;  but  he  (Mr. 
Tierney)  was  old  enough  to  remember  the  time  when,  had  two  Bri 
tish  subjects  been  executed  by  a  foreign  state  in  time  of  peace,  this 
country  would  not  have  put  up  with  it  quite  so  tamely.  He  knew 
the  subject  was  a  sore  one,  and  he  did  not  wish  to  press  it  farther. 

"  While  the  noble  lord  opposite  was  at  congress,  two  German 
princes  could  not  have  exchanged  a  few  meadows  without  important 
expresses  being  despatched  to  him.  But  America  owned  no  con 
gress:  because  she  was  a  long  way  off,  ministers  seemed  to  think 
that  danger  could  not  be  near,  and  she  was  accordingly  allowed  to 
take  up  a  position  on  a  vast  continent,  as  injurious  as  possible  to  the 
colonial  returns  of  this  country,  putting  them  in  imminent  and  un 
deniable  jeopardy. 

"  Let  the  house  and  the  country  reflect  then,  if  it  was  not  the 


PREFACE.  XV 

i 

duty  of  the  government  to  do  something  to  prepare  the  empire  for 
possible  mischiefs  that  might  arise  even  from  France  and  America." 

Sir  Robert  Wilson  (June  4th,  1819) — "America  aspired  too 
much  after  her  own  aggrandizement.  She  had  sent  commissioners 
to  South  America  to  inspire  hope  and  energy  there.  She  had  esta 
blished  a  strong  force  in  Texas,  the  province  next  to  Mexico.  Ame 
rica  would  next  demand  Cuba." 

Mr.  M'Donald  (4th  June,  1819) — "  Such  an  aggrandizement  of 
a  powerful  rival,  as  the  acquisition  of  Florida,  ought  not  to  be 
passed  over  without  a  strict  enquiry  into  the  cause  of  this  most  ex 
traordinary  and  unprecedented  proceeding,"  kc. 

And  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne  (in  the  House  of  Lords,  May 
llth,  1819)— 

"  Of  all  the  events  that  could  happen  at  this  time,  there  was  not 
one  which  so  deeply  affected  the  commercial  interests  of  Great  Bri 
tain  as  the  cession  of  the  Floridas  to  the  United  States.  The  pos 
session  of  those  provinces  would  enable  the  Americans  to  annihilate, 
the  British  trade  in  the  West  India  seas;  and  give  them  an  oppor 
tunity  of  connecting  themselves  with  the  black  governments  there 
in  a  manner  that  might  prove  essentially  injurious  to  our  interests. 
The  cession  should  have  been  guarded  against  at  the  congress  of 
Vienna.  No  one  at  Vienna  conceived  it  necessary  to  make  any 
provision  that  should  have  the  effect  of  preventing  the  aggrandize 
ment  of  the  United  States.  Hitherto  there  was  a  balance  on  which 
this  country  used  to  rely  for  her  security,  and  it  was  an  essential 
part  of  this  balance  to  prevent  the  Floridas  from  being  ceded  to  the 
United  States.  The  conduct  of  General  Jackson  in  the  execution 
of  Ambrister  and  Arbuthnot  ivas  unparalleled  in  the  history  of 
civilized  nations.  If  at  the  time  when  Copenhagen  was  taken  by 
the  British  troops,  Lord  Cathcart,  who  then  commanded  them, 
found  that  several  persons  belonging  to  neutral  countries  had  been 
engaged  in  the  defence  of  the  place,  and  ordered  them  to  be  exe 
cuted,  on  pretence  that  they  had  no  right  to  take  up  arms  against 
Great  Britain,  would  not  that  act  have  been  a  gross  violation  of  the 
laws  of  nations."* 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  any  measures  which  could 
have  been  taken  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna  to  guard 
against  the  severance  of  Florida  from  Spain,  would  have 
proved  effectual:  but  the  idea  of  a  concurrence  of  the 
members  of  that  Congress  in  precautions  against  the 
aggrandizement  of  the  United  States  for  the  security  of 

*  The  language  of  the  ministerial  journals,  concerning  General  Jackson, 
bordered  on  the  infuriate.  Thus  we  read  in  the  London  Courier  of  March  25, 
1819.  "  General  Jackson  has  the  most  villanous  look  ever  beheld  ;  he  is  never 
seen  to  smile.  The  hero  is  wthy  of  the  people,  and  the  people  of  the  hern  " 


XVI  PREFACE. 

Great  Britain!  has  something  of  the  marvellous,,  besides 
implying  an  extraordinary  sort  of  equity.  We  had  not 
been  called  on  to  explain  how  our  security  might  be 
affected  by  her  aggrandizement  in  the  West  Indies;  or 
how  the  balance  on  which  we  might  have  relied,  was  de 
stroyed  by  "the  positions"  she  had  "taken  up,"  all  over 
the  world;  positions  commanding  every  sea  of  commer 
cial  importance; — Heligoland;  Malta,  in  addition  to  Gib 
raltar;  the  Isle  of  France;  the  Island  of  Ceylon;  the  Prince 
of  Wales'  Island;  New  South  Wales;  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope.  "  Our  noble  station  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope," 
says  a  late  London  paper,  "  commands  the  commerce  of 
the  globe;  it  is  the  natural  key  to  India;  the  bridle  of 
America;  the  surface  which  we  might  people  with  hardy 
Englishmen  is  upwards  of  100,000  square  miles.  Make 
the  Cape  a  free  port  for  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  we 
banish  North  America  from  the  Indian  seas.'3  The 
powers  of  the  Continent  may  smile  when  they  find  Great 
Britain,  while  herself  adding  constantly  new  kingdoms  to 
her  dominions  in  the  East,  and  grasping  at  every  mari 
time  station  of  consequence  in  the  four  quarters  of  the 
globe,  exclaiming  against  American  ambition  and  aggran 
dizement,,  because  the  United  States  had  acquired  a  con 
tiguous  province,  from  which,  if  in  foreign  hands,  they 
must  be  subject  to  the  severest  annoyance, — by  fair  nego 
tiation,  and  with  the  relinquishment  of  large  pecuniary 
claims,  and  well-founded  pretensions  to  territory  of  much 
greater  extent  and  intrinsic  value. 

The  American  government  and  people  are  as  little 
likely  "to  demand  the  Island  of  Cuba/'  as  they  are  "to 
connect  themselves  with  the  black  governments  of  the 
West  Indies."  They  want  no  slave  islands;  and  to  insti 
gate  the  blacks  of  Hayti  to  foment  and  protect  insurrec 
tion  in  the  British  islands  (for  this  must  be  meant  by  the 
Marquis  of  Lansdowne)  is  an  atrocity  of  which  they  must 
ever  be  incapable,  though  Great  Britain,  in  her  next  war 
with  us,  should  repeat  the  example  which  she  has  here 
tofore  given,  of  exciting  the  negroes  of  the  southern 
states  to  supplant  and  butcher  their  masters.  The  case 


PREFACE.  XV11 

which  the  British  Peer  selected  to  illustrate  the  justness 
of  his  sentence  upon  general  Jackson,  is  every  way  an 
unfortunate  one  for  the  purpose.  His  lordship  and  all 
his  colleagues  of  the  Opposition  had  denounced  the  attack 
upon  Copenhagen  as  a  heinous  aggression;  to  be  pa 
ralleled  in  treachery  and  outrage,  only  by  Bonaparte's 
invasion  of  Spain.  What  parity  of  reason,  then,  in  the 
supposed  case  of  lord  Cathcart  putting  to  death  the 
strangers  whom  he  might  have  found  assisting  in  the  de 
fence  of  the  capital  of  a  civilized  power,  a  member  of  the 
European  Christian  commonwealth,  so  unexpectedly  and 
iniquitously  attacked;  and  that  of  the  American  general 
pursuing  a  savage  horde  into  an  adjacent  territory,  from 
which  it  had  issued  to  desolate  the  American  frontier, 
and  there  executing  two  European  adventurers,  proved 
to  be  its  instigators  and  accomplices?  As  the  Danes 
did  not  follow  the  practice  of  massacreing  their  pri 
soners,  the  strangers  who  might  have  identified  them 
selves  with  them,  would  not,  when  seized,  have  been 
subject  to  the  punishment  of  death  by  retaliation,  as 
were  the  allies  of  the  Seminoles,  even  under  the  EUD- 
pean  law  of  nations.  If  the  custom  of  Europe  be  deter 
minative  of  that  law  in  any  particular,  it  may  be  confi 
dently  invoked  in  favour  of  the  execution  of  Arbuthnot 
and  Ambrister,  on  the  supposition  that  they  were  actually 
leagued  with  the  Indians,  as  the  British  ministry  have  ad 
mitted;  for,  during  the  great  wars  of  the  Germans  and 
Poles  against  the  Turks,  death  was  the  immediate  lot 
of  the  European  Christian  found  acting  on  the  side  of 
the  infidels.  So,  there  has  never  been  the  least  hesita 
tion  in  the  Mediterranean  waters  and  territories,  about 
despatching  at  once  the  renegade,  no  matter  of  what 
Christian  country,  taken  in  arms  on  board  a  Barbary  cor 
sair,  or  in  a  predatory  descent  upon  the  coast. 

I  find  it  difficult  to  reconcile  the  full  knowledge  which 
the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne  must  possess  of  the  history  of 
the  British  empire  in  India,  and  in  Ireland,  with  his  de 
claration,  that  "  the  conduct  of  the  American  gene  al  was 
unparalleled  in  the  history  of  civilized  nations."  This  de- 

VOL.  I.— C* 


XV111  PREFACE. 

claration,  I  deem  the  more  remarkable,  as  it  was  only 
two  months  before  (March  3,  1819,)  that,  on  the  occasion 
of  the  vote  of  thanks  moved  to  Lord  Hastings  and  the 
British  generals  in  India,  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne 
made,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  the  following  statement,  in- 
eluding,  as  will  be  seen,  a  case  of  at  least  as  criminal  an 
aspect  as  that  of  the  American  general. 

The  Marquis  of  Lansdowne  said :  "  He  felt  it  his  duty  to  observe, 
that  there  appeared  on  the  face  of  the  papers  before  their  lord 
ships,  a  transaction  which  could  not  be  passed  over  in  silence — a 
transaction  which  must  be  made  the  subject  of  some  expression  of 
censure,  if  thanks  were  to  be  generally  voted  to  the  whole  army  of 
India. — The  transaction  to  which  he  alluded,  was  the  execution  of 
the  Killedar  of  the  fort  of  Talneir.  It  appeared,  that  after  a  vigor 
ous  resistance  made  by  the  fort,  this  commander  had  come  out  and 
surrendered.  The  garrison  left  in  the  fort,  however,  resisted.  The 
fort  was  then  attacked  by  the  British  army,  and  taken  ;  and  the 
whole  of  the  garrison  was  put  to  the  sword.  However  much  he 
might  regret  such  a  proceeding,  he  did  not  make  it  the  subject  of 
complaint.  Perhaps,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  it  was 
unavoidable  ;  but  what  must  be  their  lordship's  opinion  of  the 
transaction  that  followed.  The  Killedar,  who  had  remained  in  the 
possession  of  the  British  commander,  was  deliberately  put  to  death. 
It  was  impossible  to  leave  this  horrible  circumstance  out  of  view  in 
any  vote  of  thanks  which  their  lordships  should  give.  The  des 
patch  of  Sir  Thomas  Hislop  states,  that  whether  the  Killedar  was 
accesspry  to  the  treachery  of  the  garrison  or  not,  he  was  justly 
punished  with  death  on  account  of  his  rebellion  in  the  first  instance. 
There  was  no  ground  for  concluding  that  this  unfortunate  com 
mander  had  any  concert  with  the  garrison  in  their  treachery  ;  but, 
according  to  every  rule  of  European  war,  some  proof  of  that  con 
cert  ought  to  have  been  exhibited,  before  the  right  of  punishing 
him  was  assumed.  As  to  the  assertion,  that  he  was  guilty  of  re 
bellion  in  holding  out  after  his  master  had  submitted  and  conclud 
ed  a  treaty  of  peace,  that  was  an  offence  over  which  a  Britsh  autho 
rity  could  have  no  legal  cognizance.  He  was  accountable  for  his 
rebellion  to  Holkar  only.  But  how  was  he  to  know  that  he  was  in 
rebellion  ?  How  was  he  apprised  of  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  ? 
He  had  no  information  of  it  but  through  the  report  of  the  British 
army.  Would  their  lordships  say  that  upon  information  received 
from  an  enemy  the  commander  of  a  fortress  was  bound  to  surren 
der,  or  even  to  discontinue  hostilities,  and  that  he  was  liable  to  the 
punishment  of  death  if  he  refused  ?  If,  indeed,  he  had  been  a  party 
to  the  treachery  of  the  garrison,  he  might  have  been,  for  that  act, 
liable  to  punishment,  after  an  inquiry  before  a  regular  military  tri- 


PREFACE.  XIX 

bunal ;  but  with  the  other  charge  of  rebellion  the  British  com 
mander  could  have  nothing  to  do."' 

I  am  particularly  struck  with  another  example  of 
disingenuousness  and  exaggeration  on  the  part  of  our 
friends  of  the  opposition,  which  I  have  now  before  me  in 
a  speech  of  Earl  Grey,  at  the  New  Castle  Fox  dinner  of 
the  31st.  of  December,  1818.  This  nobleman  stands, 
with  Lord  Grenville,  at  the  head  of  the  old  whigs;  he 
was  trained  by  the  side  of  Fox,  and  deserved  to  be  called 
the  Diomedes  of  the  band  who  waged  so  powerful  a  war 
in  the  House  of  Commons  under  that  leader.  His  zeal 
for  parliamentary  reform  even  surpassed  that  of  his  col 
leagues;  but,  on  his  ascension  to  the  House  of  Lords,  his 
feelings  and  views  on  this  subject  underwent  a  material 
change;  although  he  still  continued  inseparable  in  other 
questions  from  his  first  associations,  and,  in  his  American 
politics,  ranked  with  the  most  strenuous  antagonists  of 
the  ministerial  system.  As  the  imagination  of  a  large 
proportion  of  the  British  politicians  has  been  particularly 
affected  with  the  extensive  emigrations,  that  of  his  lord 
ship  is  disturbed  in  an  especial  manner,  with  the  cry  for 
universal  suffrage  and  annual  parliaments;  and  he  proba 
bly  feels  the  more  anxious  to  discredit  these  innovations, 
from  having  himself  taken  the  lead  in  the  House  of  Com 
mons  in  arraigning  the  constitution  of  the  British  legisla 
ture.  The  example  of  America,  as  to  the  point  of  re 
presentation,  seemed  naturally  to  interfere  with  his  object, 
and  was  therefore  to  be  invalidated,  not  merely  by  being 
shown  to  have  no  application  to  the  circumstances  of 
Great  Britain,  but  by  being  exhibited  as  of  a  most  malig 
nant  and  revolting  character  in  itself.  To  this  design  I 
ascribe  the  use  which  he  made,  on  the  occasion  above 
mentioned,  of  Fearon's  "  Sketches  of  America/'  and  the 
character  which  he  gave  of  the  book  and  its  author.  I 
shall  make  the  case  better  understood  by  transcribing 
that  portion  of  the  speech  to  which  I  allude,  before  I  give, 
as  I  intend,  some  glimpses  of  the  true  light  in  which  the 
Sketches  are  to  be  viewed,  and  must  have  been  viewed. 


XX  PREFACE. 

in  fact,  by  the  noble  Earl.    After  drawing  a  frightful  pic 
ture  of  the  state  of  England,  he  proceeded  thus: 

"  But  there  is  even  a  more  dreadful  instance  than  ours  to  be 
found  in  the  history  of  a  country  whose  popular  constitution  must 
furnish  matter  of  much  interesting  observation  to  every  lover  of 
freedom.  The  constitution  of  America  is  free  and  popular  in  the 
largest  sense.  Now,  what  is  the  case  in  America?  A  gentleman 
\vas  deputed  by  thirty-nine  families,  who  had  been  driven  by  the 
necessities  of  the  times  to  think  of  emigration — a  melancholy  proof 
of  our  present  condition.  On  his  report  they  were  to  depend,  for  the 
spirit  of  the  country,  and  the  inducements  it  might  hold  out  to 
them.  The  gentleman's  name  is  Fearon.  He  has  published  the 
report  which  he  made  to  these  persons,  and  his  book  is  full  of  the 
most  "valuable  information,  and  is  distinguished  by  the  marks  not 
only  of  an  inquiring,  observing,  and  intelligent  mind,  but  of  the 
greatest  f air  tiess  and  impartiality.  What  does  Mr.  Fearon  say  of 
the  operation  of  their  laws  and  of  this  boasted  constitution?" 

His  lordship  then  adduced,  as  decisive  revelation,  what 
Fearon  has  written  concerning  the  process  of  election  and 
the  distribution  of  offices  in  America;  and  he  concludes 
in  these  words — "  This  is  Mr  Fearon's  statement,  and  I 
should  observe  to  you,  that  he  is  by  no  means  a  willing  wit 
ness  on  the  subject.  Why  do  I  repeat  these  things?  Is  it 
that  I  may  depreciate  the  value  of  popular  rights  in  your 
estimation?  Far  from  it;  I  wish  merely  to  show  you 
that,  under  a  system  which  may  appear  more  perfect 
similar,  or  even  greater  abuses,  may  still  exist  than  in 
England." 

We  must  conclude  that  the  orator  had  actually  read  the 
work  on  which  and  its  author,  he  pronounced  so  lofty  a 
panegyric;  which  he  thus  held  out  to  the  world  as  the 
source  of  the  most  authentic  information  concerning  Ame 
rican  affairs.  He  has,  in  fact,  by  the  latitude  and  em 
phasis  of  his  recommendation,  become  the  sponsor  of  the 
whole.  It  is  a  serious  accountability;  arid  I  must  confess 
that  I  am  surprised  at  the  boldness  of  the  proceeding. 

In  the  first  place,  as  to  the  point  of  our  elections  and 
the  distribution  of  public  trusts,  Fearon's  allegations  arc 
confined  to  the  affairs  of  two  states  only,  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania,  and  the  choice  of  one  federal  officer,  the 


PREFACE.  XXI 

chief  magistrate.  It  happens  that  those  are  precisely 
and  notoriously  the  parts  of  the  union,  in  which  the 
game  of  state  politics,  a  comparatively  insignificant  one, 
bears  the  worst  character  and  appearance.  In  them, 
there  is  more  perhaps,  of  what,  as  long  as  human,  nature 
is  not  perfect  with  us,  must  exist  in  a  certain  measure,  in 
the  rest, — I  mean  paltry  intrigue  for  petty  offices,  and  in 
terested  effort  to  influence  votes.  Cases  of  some  enor 
mity  may  occur  in  the  first  line  of  abuse,  and  suffrages  be 
sometimes  given  from  mere  party  subserviency;  but  it  is 
as  absurd  to  compare  what  happens  here  in  these  respects, 
with  what  prevails  in  England,  as  it  would  be  to  compare 
the  amount  and  description  of  the  mendicity  in  our  streets, 
or  of  the  criminal  delinquency  on  our  calendars,  with  those 
of  which  we  read  in  Colquhoun's  Treatises  and  the  late 
Parliamentary  Reports. 

Whoever  talks  of  a  degree  of  bribery  and  corruption, 
and  undue  influence  in  America,  like  that  of  the  neighbour 
hood  of  the  treasury  of  London,  and  the  theatres  of  English 
suffrage,  whether  the  shires  or  boroughs,  deals  in  the  most 
extravagant  hyperbole.  Fearon  only  repeats  on  this  sub 
ject,  what  he  pretends  to  have  heard  from  two  persons  of 
his  own  country,  Mr.  Cobbett  and  Mr.  Hulme,  both  of 
whom,  be  it  remarked,  peremptorily  disclaim  the  language 
which  he  imputes  to  them,  and  accuse  him  of  an  impudent 
imposture.  He  might,  perhaps,  have  read  it  in  some  of  the 
wild  declamations,  which  are  published  among  us  during 
the  heat  of  a  contested  election,  and  from  the  exaggerat 
ing  spirit  of  party  recrimination.  But,  nothing  that  has 
ever  happened  in  this  country,  furnishes  the  least  foun 
dation  for  asserting  broadly,  that  votes  and  places  are 
bought  and  sold.  Throughout  the  states,  the  right  of  suf 
frage  is  exercised,  in  general,  with  independence  and 
integrity,  by  freeholders  jealous  of  their  prerogative, 
strangers  to  the  want  and  very  idea  of  a  largess,  and  too 
proud  to  submit  to  any  dictation.  The  elections  in  New 
England,  for  instance;  are  marked  by  a  strictness  of  de 
corum,  probity  of  spirit,  and  universal  intelligence  of 
action,  such,  as  an  European  accustomed  to  view  the 


XX11  PREFACE. 

people  every  where  as  populace,  would  not  be  capable  of 
imagining.* 

On  this  subject,  moreover,  it  is  not  what  may  be  done 
or  said  in  some  of  the  large  cities  on  the  Atlantic  coast, 
that  furnishes  a  test  of  the  practice  among  the  mass  of  this 
nation. 

With  respect  to  disorder  and  corruption  in  the  system 
of  voting  and  appointing  to  office,  under  the  general  go 
vernment,  the  oracle  of  Lord  Grey  says  no  more,  from 
himself,  than  that  "  he  became  acquainted  with  facts  in 
Washington  which  no  man  could  have  induced  him  to 
believe  without  personal  observation."  With  more  than 
common  discretion,  he  abstains  from  telling  what  those 
facts  are,  but  proceeds  to  give  an  account  of  what  he 
;  there  heard  respecting  the  "  appointment"  of  the  presi 
dent  by  the  caucus  of  congress,  which  he  represents,  in 
deed,  as  a  mandate  issued  to  the  electors  in  the  different 
states,  and  never  disobeyed.  But  Lord  Grey  could  not 
have  been  so  ignorant  of  the  letter  and  whole  analogy  of 
our  institutions,  as  to  have  understood  this  to  be  more,  in 
form  or  fact,  than  a  recommendation  from  a  certain  num 
ber  of  members  of  congress  assembled  extra-officially,  to 
the  people  at  large,  to  vote  for  a  particular  individual  as 
their  chief  magistrate.  The  proceeding  is,  certainly,  an 
irregularity,  and  unsafe  as  a  precedent;  yet,  so  far,  it  can 
not  be  said,  to  have  been  of  practical  injury,  or  of  any  real 

*  "I  have  lived  long  in  New  England,"  said  Dr.  Dwight,  the  late  distin 
guished  president  of  Yale  College,  "  and  have  never  yet  known  a  single  shilling 
given  to  purchase  a  vote."  This  is  the  testimony  of  one  than  whom  no  person 
could  have  had  better  opportunities  of  knowledge.  He  describes  thus  the 
manner  of  a  New  England  election, 

"In  New  England,  on  the  morning  of  an  election  day,  the  electors  assemble 
either  in  a  church  or  a  town  house,  in  the  centre  of  the  township,  of  which, 
they  are  inhabitants. 

"The  business  of  the  day  is  sometimes  introduced  by  a  sermon,  and  very 
often  by  public  prayer.  A  moderator  is  chosen:  the  votes  are  given  in  with 
strict  decency ;  without  a  single  debate ;  without  noise,  or  disorder,  or  drink ; 
and  with  not  a  little  of  the  sobriety,  seen  in  religious  assemblies.  The  meeting 
is  then  dissolved ;  the  inhabitants  return  quietly  to  their  homes,  and  have 
neither  battles  nor  disputes.  I  do  not  believe  that  a  single  woman,  bound  or  free., 
ever  appeared  (it  an  election  in  New  England  since  the  colonization  of  the  coun 
try.  It  would  be  as  much  as  her  character  was  worth." 

Reply  to  the  Quarterly  Keviewers,  1815. 


PREFACE.  XX111 

significance.  I  believe  it  is  not  doubted  by  any  one,  but 
that  the  personages  who  have  been  elected  in  succession 
to  the  office  of  president,  and  particularly  the  one  who 
now  fills  it,  would  have  succeeded  equally  with  the  people, 
without  the  forward  counsel  of  such  an  assembly;  and, 
it  seems  to  me,  no  less  certain,  that  it  is  not  in  the  power 
of  any  cabal  of  whatever  composition,  to  impose  any  man 
upon  the  people  as  their  chief  magistrate;  to  effect  the 
adoption  of  one  to  whom  the  preference  would  not  be 
given  spontaneously.* 

On  the  whole,  all  that  is  found  in  Fearon's  book,  touch 
ing  these  matters,  does  not,  when  fairly  examined,  impli 
cate  in  general,  "  the  laws  and  boasted  constitution"  of 
America;  for,  there  is  nothing  that  calls  in  question  the 
conformity  of  the  representation  in  congress,  with  the 
theory  of  those  laws  and  that  constitution.  The  "  case  in 
America57  admitted  of  application  to  the  project  of  par 
liamentary  reform  in  England,  only  so  far  as  it  could  be 
shewn,  that  the  right  of  suffrage  was  not  exercised  honest 
ly  and  independently  in  the  election  of  congress;  that  this 
body  was  not  free  from  corrupt  dealings  towards  the  peo 
ple  and  within  itself;  and  did  not  fully  and  fairly  represent 
the  nation.  No  accusations  of  the  kind  are  hazarded  by 
Fearon,  and  I  am  sure  that  whosoever  might  utter,  would 
find  it  impossible  to  sustain  them,  in  the  opinion  of  im 
partial  minds. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  obtain  an  idea  of  the  ge 
neral  doctrines,  concerning  this  country,  of  the  book  to 
which  Earl  Grey  has  so  formally  put  his  authoritative 
seal.  I  take  at  random,  by  way  of  specimen  of  that 

*  "We  kno-w"  say  the  Edinburgh  Reviewers,  in  their  number  for  Decem 
ber,  1818,  (article  on  Universal  Suffrage)  "that  the  leaders  of  the  democratic 
party  who  now  predominate  in  their  caucus  or  committee  at  Washington,  do, 
in  effect,  nominate  to  all  the  important  offices  in  North  America,"  It  is  inconceiv 
able  how  such  an  assertion  as  this,  could  have  been  risqued  in  a  publication 
likely  to  find  its  way  into  the  United  States.  I  scarcely  need  add  that  no  one 
in  this  country  ever  before  heard  of  a  standing  committee  of  the  kind;  and 
that  no  such  nomination  takes  place,  beyond  the  occasional  recommendation 
to  the  president,  by  members  ot  congress,  or  others,  in  their  in  iividual  capaci 
ty,  of  persons  who  are  soliciting  offices,  or  on  whom  it  is  thought  desirable  that 
they  should  be  conferred. 


XXIV  PREFACE. 

"most  valuable  information  with  which  it  is  full/*  the 
following  passages. 

"  No  species  of  correction  is  allowed  in  the  American  schools ; 
children  even  at  home  are  perfectly  independent,  (p.  39.)  A  cold, 
uniform  bigotry  seems  to  pervade  all  religious  sects,  (p.  48.)  Clean 
liness  is  scarcely  known  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  (p.  80.)  The 
tradesmen  here  (Philadelphia)  are  less  intelligent  than  men  follow 
ing  the  like  occupations  in  England,  (p.  161 .)  The  Americans  are 
most  remarkable  for  complete  and  general  coldness  of  character 
and  disposition — a  cold  blooded  callousness  of  disposition,  (p.  166.) 
Whatever  degree  of  religious  intelligence  exists  is  confined  to  the 
clergy.,  (p.  167.)  The  colour  of  the  young  females  of  Philadel 
phia  is  produced  by  art:  the  junior  branches  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  there,  are  not  at  all  deficient  in  the  practice  of  rougeing. 
(p.  168.)  The  dirk  is  the  inseparable  companion  of  all  classes  in 
the  state  of  Illinois,  (p  262.) — The  United  States  are  cursed  with  a 
fiojiulation  undeserving  of  their  exuberant  soil  and  free  government. 
(p.  273.)  The  American  lawyers  are  at  least  thirty-three  and  a 
third  per  cent,  lower  than  their  brethren  in  England,  (p.  317.)  The 
Americans,  neglecting  to  encourage  any  pursuits,  either  indivi 
dually  or  collectively,  which  may  be  called  mental-,  they  appear,  as 
a  nation,  to  have  sunk  into  habits  of  indolence  and  indifference: 
they  are  neither  lively  in  their  tempers  nor  generous  in  their  dispo 
sitions,  Sec.*  (p.  362.)  We  do  not  meet  in  America  with  even  an 
approach  to  simplicity  and  honesty  of  mind.  (p.  363.)  The  nation 
at  large  dislike  England,  and  yet,  both  individually  and  collectively, 
would  be  offended,  should  a  hint  be  expressed  that  they  were  of 
Irish  or  of  Dutch,  and  not  of  English  descent,  (p.  368.)  No  peo 
ple  are  so  vain  as  the  Americans;  their  self-estimation  and  cool- 
headed  bombast,  when  speaking  of  themselves  or  of  their  country, 
are  quite  ludicrous,  (p.  368.)  Every  man  in  America  thinks  he 
has  arrived  at  perfection,  (p.  368.)  Every  American  considers  that 
it  is  impossible  for  a  foreigner  to  teach  him  any  thing,  and  that  his 
head  contains  a  perfect  encyclopaedia,  (p.  369.)  A  non-intercourse 
act  seems  to  have  passed  against  the  sciences,  morals^  and  literature, 
in  America,  (p.  371.)  The  sexes  seem  ranked  as  distinct  races  of 
beings,  between  whom  social  converse  is  rarely  to  be  held.  A  uni 
versal  neglect  of  either  mental  or  domestic  knowledge  appears  to 
exist  among  the  females  here,  as  compared  with  those  of  England. 
(p.  377.)  Such  is  the  habitual  indolence  of  the  American  people, 
and  their  indifference  with  regard  to  Jiublic  affairs,  that  occurrences 


*  So  Lieutenant  Hall,  in  his  book  of  Travels  in  America,  says.  "  The  Ame 
ricans  are  habitually  serious  and  silent;  their  spirits  are  seldom  elevated!!'' 
Apathy,  taciturnity,  are  traits  which  we  did  not  suspect  to  exist  in  our  cha 
racter 


PREFACE.  XXV 

of  first  rate  importance  are  known  but  by  few  individuals,  (p.  385.) 
There  would  appear  to  be  placed  in  the  very  stamina  of  the  people 
a  coldness,  a  selfishness,  and  a  spirit  of  conceit,  which  form  strong 
barriers  against  improvement."  (p.  391.) 

Every  particular  assertion  in  this  medley  is  in  the 
nature  of  antiphrasis;  and  the  general  allegations  are 
slanderous.  The  extravagance  of  several  of  them  be 
trays  not  only  a  libellous  disposition,  but  an  utter  want 
of  judgment,  in  the  writer.  1  will  illustrate  further  "  that 
fairness  and  impartiality,"  which  Earl  Grey  ascribes 
to  him  in  the  superlative  degree.  He  states  (p.  46,)  that 
in  New  York  all  the  churches  (forty-five  in  number)  are 
well  filled  on  the  Sunday.  The  fact  being  rather  credita 
ble  to  that  community,  it  was  necessary  to  give  it  another 
direction;  and  this  is  done  by  the  following  arbitrary, 
ridiculous,  and  malevolent  interpretation.  "  The  great 
proportion  of  attendants  at  any  particular  church  appear 
to  select  it,  either  because  they  are  acquainted  with  the 
preacher,  or  that  it  is  frequented  by  fashionable  compa 
ny,  or  their  great-grandmother  went  there,  before  the  re 
volution,  or  because' their  interests  will  be  promoted  by 
so  doing."  We  are  not  told  the  particular  indication  or 
circumstance  by  which  this  appeared.  Wherever  the  re 
ligious  worship  and  spirit  of  this  country  are  brought 
into  view,  it  is  in  the  same  strain  that  they  are  celebrated; 
and  ignorance  of  the  scriptures  is  perpetually  charged 
upon  the  whole  body  of  a  people  by  whom  the  bible  is, 
doubtless,  more  generally  possessed  and  read,  in  family, 
than  by  any  other  on  earth.* 

Our  traveller,  when  he  cannot  venture  to  affirm  an 
opprobrious  fact,  as  of  his  own  knowledge,  has  recourse 
to  this  form  of  speech,  "  I  have  reason  to  believe" — a 
convenient  mode  of  calumniating,  when,  as  uniformly 
happens  with  him,  the  reason  is  not  assigned.  Thus, 
he  says  (p.  171),  in  relation  to  Philadelphia, — a  city  as 
remarkable  for  domestic  neatness,  order,  morality,  and 


*  It  is  used  in  all  the  schools  in  the  interior,  and  these  receive  nearly  every 
native  white. 

VOL.  I.—D* 


XXVI  PREFACE, 

happiness  as  any  which  has  ever  existed, — "Although 
the  eyes  and  ears  of  a  stranger  are  not  insulted,  in  the 
openness  of  noonday,  with  .  evidence  of  hardened  pro 
fligacy,  I  have,  nevertheless,  reason  to  believe  in  its  ex 
istence  to  a  very  great  extent.  The  habits  of  the  people 
are  marked  by  caution  and  secresy.  There  is  here  a  la 
mentable  want  of  cleanliness,  in  such  matters  as  are  re 
moved  from  the  public  eye;  an  ignorance  of  order  and 
neatness  in  domestic  life."  Again,  when  in  Kentucky, 
"  I  havo  not  seen  the  practice  of  gouging  occur,  though 
I  have  good  reason  to  helieve  in  its  existence;"  and, 
when  at  New  Orleans,  "At  a  tavern  opposite,  I  witnessed 
a  personal  conflict,  in  which  /  suppose  one  of  the  parties 
was  dirked."  Admirably  "fair  and  impartial!" 

According  to  this  "  enquiring,  observing  and  intelligent. 
gentleman"  (p.  46,  373,)  "  conversation  in  American  so 
ciety,  that  even  of  the  ladies,  turns  entirely  upon  the 
capture  of  the  Guerriere,  and  the  battle  of  New  Orleans; 
the  price  of  flour  and  cotton,  and  the  bad  conduct  £nd 
inferior  nature  of  c  niggars.' '  He  dialogues  much  as  he 
goes  along,  and  all  his  American  interlocutors,  of  what 
ever  degree,  talk  in  the  same  cant  phrases  of  the  most 
vulgar  cacophony.  Their  language,  on  all  occasions,  is 
provincial  and  plebeian.  This  circumstance  alone  might 
have  excited  in  the  mind  of  Lord  Grey  a  distrust  of  his 
gentleman's  candour,  or  of  the  cast  of  his  associations, 
both  in  this  country  and  at  home.  The  dramatic  style  of 
narrative,  whether  in  an  historian  or  traveller,  is,  at  best, 
open  to  suspicion. 

Mr.  Fearon  insists  earnestly  upon  "the  jealousy  and 
dislike  of  foreigners  rooted  in  the  breasts  of  all  the  native 
Americans."  He  returns  often  to  this  topic,  and  will 
have  it  that,  "  throughout  the  states,  there  is  a  strong  line 
of  distinction  drawn  between  citizens  of  native  and  of 
foreign  birth.3'  (P.  347.)  The  ample  portion  which  is  en 
joyed  by  persons  of  the  last  description,  of  whatever 
means  of  comfort,  power,  distinction  this  country  affords— 
the  manner  in  which  we  are  consubstantiated  and  evened 
throughout  the  body  politic  and  social,  render  it  unneces- 


PREFACE.  XXVli 

sary  for  me  to  deny  the  absurd  allegation;  but  I  mention 
it,  and  the  earnestness  with  which  it  is  made,  as  striking 
particulars  of  the  evidence  which  the  sketches  themselves 
offered  to  the  British  earl,  of  their  being  mainly  designed 
to  discourage  emigration  to  the  United  States.  The  dis 
tinct,  elaborate  attempt  which  is  made  in  them,  to  refute 
and  disgrace  the  publications  of  Mr.  Birbeck,  is  addi 
tional  proof  of  this  drift,  which  we  can  hardly  believe 
could  have  escaped  the  observation  of  his  lordship,  though 
we  should  admit  that  he  overlooked  the  sweeping  calum 
nies  and  sinistrous  interpretations  with  which  the  work 
abounds,  and  the  constant  solicitude  of  the  author  to 
qualify  what  favourable  testimony  he  is  compelled  to  bear, 
in  s,uch  a  way  as  to  defeat  its  allurement. 

But,  it  is  not  only  of  flippancy  and  rancour  that  we  could 
convict  this  traveller,  throughout:  in  several  instances  he 
might  be  shown  to  be  guilty  of  deliberate,  circumstantial 
falsehood.  I  will  select  one  which  may  represent  his 
whole  book,  and  in  which  the  Quarterly  Review  is  impli 
cated.  In  his  report  from  Philadelphia,  dated  October  ]2, 
1817,  he  writes  thus:— 

"  Seeing  the  following  advertisement  in  the  newspapers,  put  in 
by  the  captain  and  owners  of  the  vessel  referred  to,  I  visited  the 
ship,  in  company  with  a  bootmaker  of  this  city. 

'  THE  PASSENGERS 

1  On  board  the  brig  Bubona,  from  Amsterdam,  and  who  are  wil- 
4  ling  to  engage  themselves  for  a  limited  time,  to  defray  the  ex- 
'penses  of  their  passage,  consist  of,  &c.  Apply  on  board  of  the 
'  Bubona,  opposite  Callowhill  street,  in  the  river  Delaware,  or  to  W. 
s  ODLIN  St  Co.  No.  38,  South  Wharves.' 

"  As  we  ascended  the  side  of  this  hulk,  a  most  revolting  scene  of 
want  and^  misery  presented  itself.  The  eye  involuntarily  turned  for 
some  relief  from  the  horrible  picture  of  human  suffering,  which 

this  living  sepulchre  afforded.     Mr. enquired  if  there  were 

any  shoemakers  on  board.  The  captain  advanced:  his  afifiearance 
besjioke  his  office;  he  is  an  American,  tall,  determined,  and  with  an 
eye  thatjiashes  with  Algerine  cruelty.  He  called  in  the  Dutch  lan 
guage  for  shoemakers,  and  never  can  I  forget  the  scene  that  follow 
ed.  The  poor  fellows  came  running  up  with  unspeakable  delight, 
no  doubt  anticipating  a  relief  from  their  loathsome  dungeon,  Their 


XXV1U  PREFACE. 

clothes,  if  rags  deserve  that  denomination,  actually  perfumed  the 
air.  Some  were  without  shirts,  others  had  this  article  of  dress,  but 
of  a  quality  as  coarse  as  the  worst  packing  cloth.  I  enquired  oi 
several  if  they  could  speak  English.  They  smiled,  and  gabbled. 
*  No  Engly,  no  Engly, — one  Engly  talk  ship.'  The  deck  was  filthy. 
The  cooking,  washing,  and  necessary  department,  were  close  toge 
ther.  Such  is  the  mercenary  barbarity  of  the  Americans  ivho  arc 
engaged  in  this  trade,  that  they  crammed  into  one  of  those  vessels 
500  passengers,  80  of  whom  died  on  the  passage." 

This  account  is  quoted  with  evident  satisfaction,  in  the 
Quarterly  Review,  for  May,  1819,  and  the  reviewer  adds 
from  himself — "The  infamous  traffic  is  confined.,  ex 
clusively,  to  American  vessels." 

I  have  thought  it  worth  while  to  ascertain  the  facts  of 
the  case,  and  they  are  as  follows: — The  Brig  Bubona  in 
question  was  a  British  vessel,  from  Sunderland,  in  Eng 
land;  she  was  British  property,  and  navigated  on  British 
account;  her  crew  was  British,  and  her  captain  an  Eng 
lishman,  by  the  name  of  William  Garterell.  On  arriving 
in  the  port  of  Philadelphia,  he  selected  as  his  factors,  fhe 
Messrs.  Odlin  and  Co.  merchants  of  that  city,  whom 
Fearon  falsely  represents  as  the  oivners  of  the  vessel. 
The  captain  was  not  "  tall,"  but  about  the  middle  size, 
or  rather  below  it,  and  his  countenance  had  an  open, 
agreeable  expression.  What  is  more:  of  the  vessels 
that  entered  the  port  of  Philadelphia  in  the  years  1816, 
and  1817,  laden  with  redemptioners  from  the  continent 
of  Europe,  the  greater  number  was  foreign;  these 
amounted  to  ten,  of  which  five  were  British  in  British 
employment;  namely,  the  Brig  Bubona,  above  mentioned; 
the  ship  Zenophon,  captain  Goodwin;  the  brig  Constantia, 
captain  Janson;  the  brig  William,  captain  Arrowsmith, 
and  brig  William,  captain  Danton.*  The  condition  of 
the  redemptioners  on  board  the  British  vessels  was  no  bet 
ter  than  in  the  others  of  whatever  nation,  engaged  in  the 
"infamous  traffic." 

I  derive  these  particulars  from  unquestionable  sources: 

*  The  other  foreign  vessels  (Prussian  and  Haneseatic)  were,  ship  Vrow  Ca- 
thrina,  captain  John  Van  Dyle  ;  brig  Bonif'acias,  captain  Leitman  ;  brig  Concor- 
dia,  captain  Diedrickson  ;  ship  Vrow  Elizabeth,  captain  Blankman,  &c. 


PREFACE.  XXIX 

• — the  Mr.  Woodbridge  Odlin,  who  transacted  the  busi 
ness  of  the  Bubona;  and  Mr.  Andrew  Leinau,  a  respecta 
ble  inhabitant  of  Philadelphia,  who  served  as  general 
agent  for  the  foreign  redemptioner  ships,  as  they  were 
styled,  and  who  has  in  his  hands  official  vouchers,,  which 
I  have  examined,  of  their  respective  national  character, 
the  number  of  their  passengers,  &c.  It  is  known,  more 
over,  that  as  soon  as  the  abuses  practised  in  the  trade 
became  notorious,  the  American  Congress  passed  a  law 
designed  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  them,  and  remark 
able  for  the  humanity  and  efficaciousness  of  its  precau 
tions. 

If  Fearon  really  visited  the  Bubona,  which  may  be 
doubted,  he,  an  Englishman,  could  not  have  mistaken 
her  national  character,  nor  that  of  the  captain.  This 
"  tall  American,  with  an  eye  flashing  Algerine  cruelty," 
is  a  phantasm  manifestly  intended  to  heighten  the  injuri 
ous  effect  of  the  whole  malignant  fiction.  So  the  use  of 
the  present  tense  by  the  Quarterly  Reviewers,  in  their 
unwarrantable  assertion,  argues  the  design  of  giving  it 
to  be  understood,  that  the  trade  is  still  carried  on  by 
American  vessels,  with  the  same  abuses  as  existed  before 
the  passage  of  the  preventive  law. 

Whether  Earl  Grey  has  found  "  the  greatest  fairness 
and  impartiality"  in  the  article  of  the  Quarterly  Review, 
on  Fearon's  Sketches,  as  well  as  in  the  latter,  I  know  not; 
but  it  is  certain  that  the  noble  lord  and  the  reviewer  dif 
fer  much  in  their  views  of  the  character  of  the  traveller. 
"  We  find  Mr.  Fearon,"  says  the  reviewer,  "  whenever 
England  is  concerned,  venting  his  ignorant  sneers,  or  in 
dulging  his  spiteful  calumnies,  at  the  expense  of  decency 
and  truth:  he  crouches  with  base  servility  before  Cobbet; 
he  grossly  libels  his  fair  countrywomen;  he  is  solicitous  to 
entice  the  poor  of  Europe  from  their  country,  by  fallacies 
and  lies;  he  has  greedily  seized  upon  every  opportunity  of 
traducing  the  best  and  bravest  officers  of  England;  his 
prejudices  are  rooted  in  the  profoundest  ignorance;  he 
deals  in  flippant  and  frequent  abuse  of  scripture ;  he  is  evi 
dently  a  man  of  very  limited  faculties:  he  is  in  a  state  of 


XXX  PREFACE, 

perpetual  childhood;  his  total  want  of  knowledge  is  suffi 
ciently  apparent,  &c."  It  is  a  witness  thus  blackened, 
blighted,  and  stultified  by  themselves,  and  whom  in  fact, 
they  convict,  in  their  examination  of  his  book,  of  gross  in 
consistency  and  prevarication,  that  the  master  critics  of 
London  bring  forward  to  explode  the  pretensions  of  the 
United  States  to  any  degree  of  moral  worth,  intellectual 
dignity,  or  physical  comfort.  It  is  upon  his  testimony, 
"  who  violates  truth  and  decency,  whenever  England  is 
concerned/'  they  affect  to  believe,  and  would  have  the 
world  believe,  besides  what,  I  have  quoted  from  him, 
and  a  multitude  of  other  general  imputations  and  parti 
cular  calumnies,  that — "the  churches  in  America  are 
filled  by  fanatics,  hypocrites,  and  buffoons;"  that  "gain 
is  the  education,  the  morals,  the  politics,  the  theology, 
and  stands  instead  of  the  domestic  comfort  of  all  ages  and 
classes  of  Americans  ;"  that  "  the  worst  degree  of  corrup 
tion  which  the  inventive  malice  of  the  worst  Jacobin  ever 
charged  upon  the  government  of  England,  is  more  than 
realized  at  the  American  capital;"  that  "every  election 
in  America,  from  the  president  downwards,  is  carried  on 
vby  bribery,  corruption,  and  intrigue."* 

I  cannot  refrain,  in  dismissing  Mr.  Fearon  and  his 
compurgators,  from  offering  to  my  American  reader, 
some  random  testimony  concerning  the  nature  of  those 
abuses  in  the  system  of  British  suffrage  and  representa 
tion,  greater  than  which  Lord  Grey  is  pleased  to  believe, 
may  or  do  exist  under  that  of  the  United  States. 

In  the  year  1793,  the  honourable  Mr.  Grey,  then  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Commons, — now  Earl  Grey, 
and  a  member  of  the  House  of  Peers — made  a  motion  in 
the  Commons,  for  a  reform  in  parliament,  grounded  upon 
a  petition  which  he  presented,  and  vehemently  supported. 
and  was  understood  to  have  himself  composed.  The 
following  quotations  are  parts  of  that  petition,  and  the 

*  The  Edinburgh  Reviewers  have  also  so  far  forgotten  their  station,  as  to 
h?stow  on  Fearon,  the  epithets  "  enlightened  and  intelligent,"  and  to  recom 
mend  his  book,  \\ith  the  simple  reservation  that  he  is  "  a  little  given  to  exagge 
ration  in  his  views  of  vices  and  prejudices."  See  their  61st  number. 


PREFACE.  XXXI 

facts  stated  in  them,  which  did  not  admit  of  denial,  are 
equally  true  of  the  subject  at  the  present  day. 

"  Your  petitioners  complain,  that  the  elective  franchise  is  so 
partially  and  unequally  distributed,  and  is  in  so  many  instances 
committed  to  bodies  of  men  of  such  very  limited  numbers;  that  the 
majority  of  your  honourable  House,  is  elected  by  less  than  fifteen 
thousand  electors,  which  even  if  the  male  adults  in  the  kingdom 
be  estimated  at  so  low  a  number  as  three  millions,  is  not  more  than 
the  two  hundredth  part  of  the  people  to  be  represented. 

"  The  second  complaint  of  your  petitioners,  is  founded  "on  the 
unequal  proportions  in  which  the  elective  franchise  is  distributed, 
and  in  support  of  it, 

"  They  affirm,  that  seventy  of  your  honourable  members  are  re 
turned  by  thirty-five  places,  where  the  right  of  voting  is  vested  in 
burghage  and  other  tenures  of  a  similar  description,  and  in  which  it 
would  be  to  trifle  with  the  patience  of  your  honourable  House,  to 
mention  any  number  of  voters  whatever,  the  elections  at  the  places 
alluded  to  being  notoriously  a  mere  matter  of  form.  And  this  your 
petitioners  are  ready  to  prove. 

"  They  affirm,  that  in  addition  to  the  seventy  honourable  mem 
bers  so  chosen,  ninety  more  of  your  honourable  members  are  elect 
ed  by  forty-six  places,  in  none  of  which  the  number  of  voters 
exceeds  fifty.  And  this  your  petitioners  are  ready  to  prove. 

"  They  affirm,  that  in  addition  to  the  hundred  and  sixty  so  elect 
ed,  thirty-seven  more  of  your  honourable  members  are  elected  by 
nineteen  places,  in  none  of  which  the  number  of  voters  exceeds  one 
hundred.  And  this  your  petitioners  are  ready  to  prove. 

"  They  affirm,  that  in  addition  to  the  hundred  and  ninety-seven 
honourable  members  so  chosen,  fifty-two  more  are  returned  to 
serve  in  Parliament  by  twenty-six  places,  in  none  of  which  the 
number  of  voters  exceeds  two  hundred.  And  this  your  petitioners 
are  ready  to  prove. 

"They  affirm,  that  in  addition  to  two  hundred  and  forty-nine  so 
elected,  twenty  more  are  returned  to  serve  in  Parliament  for  coun 
ties  in  Scotland,  by  less  than  one  hundred  electors  each,  and  ten 
for  counties  in  Scotland  by  less  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  each. 
And  this  your  petitioners  are  ready  to  prove,  even  admitting  the 
validity  of  fictitious  votes. 

"  They  affirm,  that  in  addition  to  the  two  hundred  and  seventy- 
nine  SQ  elected,  thirteen  districts  of  burghs  of  Scotland,  not  con- 
taming  one  hundred  voters  each,  and  two  districts  of  burghs,  not 
containing  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  each,  return  fifteen  more 
honourable  members.  And  this  your  petitioners  are  ready  to 
prove.  And  in  this  manner,  according  to  the  present  state  of  your 
representation,  two  hundred  and  ninety-four  of  your  honourable 
members  are  chosen,  and  being  a  majority  of  the  entire  House  of 


XXX11  PREFACE. 

Commons,  are  enabled  to  decide  all  questions  in  the  name  of  the 
whole  people  of  England  and  Scotland. 

"  Religious  opinions  create  an  incapacity  to  vote.  All  Papists 
are  excluded  generally,  and,  by  the  operation  of  the  test  laws,  Pro 
testant  dissenters  are  deprived  of  a  voice  in  the  election  of  repre 
sentatives  in  about  thirty  boroughs,  where  the  right  of  voting  is 
confined  to  corporate  officers  alone;  a  deprivation  the  more  unjusti 
fiable,  because,  though  considered  as  unworthy  to  vote,  they  are 
deemed  capable  of  being  elected,  and  may  be  the  representatives  of 
the  very  places  for  which  they  are  disqualified  from  being  the 
electors. 

"  A  man  paying  taxes  to  any  amount,  how  great  soever,  for  his 
domestic  establishment,  does  not  thereby  obtain  a  right  to  vote,  un 
less  his  residence  he  in  some  borough  where  that  right  is  vested  in 
the  inhabitants.  This  exception  operates  in  sixty  places,  of  which 
twenty-eight  do  not  contain  three  hundred  voters  each,  and  the 
number  of  householders  in  England  and  Wales  (exclusive  of  Scot 
land,)  who  pay  all  taxes,  is  714,911,  and  of  householders  who  pay 
all  taxes,  but  the  house  and  window  taxes,  is  284,459,  as  appears  by 
a  return  made  to  your  honourable  House  in  1785. 

"  In  Scotland,  the  grievance  arising  from  the  nature  of  the  rights 
of  voting,  has  a  different  and  still  more  intolerable  operation.  In  that 
great  and  populous  division  of  the  kingdom,  not  only  the  great 
mass  of  the  householders,  but  of  the  landholders  also,  are  excluded 
from  all  participation  in  the  choice  of  representatives. 

"  Your  honourable  House  knows,  that  the  complicated  rights  of 
voting,  and  the  shameful  practices  which  disgrace  election  pro 
ceedings,  have  so  loaded  your  table  with  petitions  for  judgment  and 
redress,  that  one  half  of  the  usual  duration  of  a  parliament  has 
scarcely  been  sufficient  to  settle  who  is  entitled  to  sit  for  the  other 
half. 

"From  the  peculiar  rights  of  voting,  by  which  certain  places  re 
turn  members  to  serve  in  parliaments,  eighty-four  individuals  do, 
by  their  own  immediate  authority,  send  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
seven  of  your  honourable  members  to  Parliament,  and  your  peti 
tioners  are  ready  to  name  the  members  and  the  patrons. 

"  Your  petitioners  are  convinced  that  in  addition  to  the  one  hundred 
and  fifty-seven  honourable  members  above  mentioned,  one  hundred 
and  fifty  more,  making  in  the  whole  three  hundred  and  seven,  are 
returned  to  your  honourable  House,  not  by  the  collected  voice  of 
those  whom  they  appear  to  represent,  but  by  the  recommendation 
of  seventy  powerful  individuals,  added  to  the  eighty-four  before 
mentioned,  and  making  the  total  number  of  patrons  altogether  only 
one  hundred  and  fifty-four,  who  return  a  decided  majority  of  your 
honourable  House. 

"  Your  petitioners  inform  your  honourable  House,  and  are  ready 
to  prove  it  at  your  bar,  that  they  have  the  most  reasonable  grounds 
to  suspect,  that  HO  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  your  honourable 


PREFACE.  XXX11I 

members  owe  their  elections  entirely  to  the  interference  of  peers; 
and  your  petitioners  are  prepared  to  show  by  legal  evidence,  that 
forty  peers,  in  defiance  of  your  resolutions,  have  possessed  them 
selves  of  so  many  burghage  tenures,  and  obtained  such  an  absolute 
and  uncontrolled  command  in  very  many  small  boroughs  in  the 
kingdom,  as  to  be  enabled  by  their  own  positive  authority  to  return 
eighty-one  of  your  honourable  members. 

"  The  means  taken  by  candidates  to  obtain,  and  by  electors  to  be 
stow  a  seat  in  your  honourable  house,  appear  to  have  been  increas 
ing  in  a  progressive  degree  of  fraud  and  corruption.  In  the  31st 
year  of  the  reign  of  his  present  majesty,  the  number  of  statutes 
found  necessary  to  prevent  bribery,  had  increased  to  sixty-five." 

In  confirming  the  allegations  and  pressing  the  object  of 
the  petition,  the  honourable  Mr.  Grey  said,  that  "  the  evils 
of  the  American  war  were,  in  his  mind,  entirely  owing  to 
the  unequal  and  corrupt  representation  in  Parliament/' 
And  Mr.  Sheridan  made  the  following  observations  in  the 
course  of  the  debate,  to  which  Mr.  Grey's  motion  gave 
rise. 

"  As  to  the  general  challenge  of  proving  the  abuse  which  subsists 
in  our  government,  he  (Mr.  Sheridan)  had  no  delight  in  it;  but  as 
he  must  answer,  he  should  say,  that  some  of  the  abuses  of  which  he 
complained,  and  of  which  a  reform  of  Parliament  was  the  only 
remedy,  were,  that  Peers  of  the  other  house  sent  members  to  the 
House  of  Commons  by  nomination ;  that  the  Crown  sent  members 
into  that  house  by  nomination  too  ;  that  some  members  of  that  house 
sent  in  members  by  their  own  nomination  also — all  these  things 
made  a  farce  of  an  election  for  the  places  for  which  these  were  re 
turned  ;  that  men  were  created  peers  without  having  been  of  the 
least  service  to  the  public  in  any  action  of  their  lives,  but  merely  on 
account  of  their  Parliamentary  influence — the  present  minister  had 
been  the  means  of  creating  a  hundred  of  them.  He  did  not  blame 
him,  bjit  the  fault  was  in  the  system  of  government;  corruption 
was  the  pivot  on  which  the  whole  of  our  public  government  af 
fairs  turned;  the  collection  of  taxes  was  under  the  management 
of  wealthy  men  in  Parliamentary  interest,  the  consequence  of  which 
was,  that  the  collection  of  them  was  neglected ;  that  to  make  up  the 
deficiency,  excisemen  must  be  added  to  the  excise — this  soured 
the  temper  of  the  people  ;  that  neither  in  the  church,  the  army,  the 
navy,  or  any  public  office,  was  any  appointment  given,  but  through 
Parliamentary  influence ;  that,  in  consequence,  corrupt  majorities 
at  the  will  of  the  minister.* 


*   See  the  Debate  in  the  30th  vol.  of  the  Parliamentary  History. 

VOL.  I.— E* 


XXXIV  PREFACE. 

The  following  parts  of  the  debate  of  the  House  of  Com 
mons  respecting  the  new  taxes,  which  I  extract  from  the 
London  Courier  of  June  19,  1819,  will  show  what  degree 
of  reformation  that  body  has  undergone  since  Mr.  Sheri 
dan's  exposition  of  its  character. 

"  The  Marquis  of  Tavistock  said,  (June  18,  1819.)— Was  it  not 
grievous  to  reflect,  that,  when  the  minister  had  proposed  an  income 
tax,  the  house  defeated  his  purpose — or,  as  the  noble  lord  had  ex 
pressed  it,  relieved  themselves,  and  not  the  country  ?  Was  it  not 
grievous  to  reflect,  that  the  house  had  rejected  with  indignation  the 
income  tax ;  and  that  when  other  taxes  were  proposed,  which  fell 
upon  the  poor  and  distressed,  they  were  passed  with  acclamations, 
and  nothing  was  talked  of  but  the  triumphant  majorities  of  minis- 
ters  ?  (cheering).  If  any  difficulty  was  felt  in  believing  this  to  be  a 
correct  view  of  the  case,  let  it  be  recollected,  that  when  the  income 
tax  was  refused  in  1816,  ministers  gave  up  the  malt  tax,  and  the 
noble  lord  (Castlereagh)  said,  "  Since  Parliament  has  relieved  itself 
from  the  income  tax,  I  and  my  colleagues  relieve  the  country  by 
giving  up  the  malt  tax."  Why  did  not  ministers,  entertaining  this 
view  of  the  different  taxes,  propose  a  renewal  of  the  income  tax, 
which  they  believed  to  be  a  burden  upon  the  members  of  the  house, 
and  not  upon  the  country,  instead  of  the  taxes  which  they  had 
admitted  to  be  felt  by  the  country,  and  especially  by  the  poorer 
classes?  They  acted  so,  obviously  because  they  were  afraid  of  a 
defeat  in  that  house  upon  the  income  tax.  But  would  they  have 
last  year  proposed  the  taxes  now  required  ?  If  they  had  made  the 
proposal,  would  it  have  been  endured  in  the  last  year  of  the  last 
Parliament?  Was  it  surprizing  that  the  people  of  this  country 
should  be  discontented,  when  they  saw  their  representatives  shelter 
ing  themselves  from  an  income  tax?  (Hear.) — When  they  saAv 
those  representatives  at  the  same  time  laying  further  taxes  on  malt, 
on  tea,  and  on  wool  ? 

"  How  happened  it,  that  when  the  people  called  loudly  and  earn 
estly  for  retrenchment  and  economy,  the  ministers,  backed  by  over 
whelming  majorities,  answered  them  by  imposing  fresh  taxes,  and 
increasing  their  overpowering  burdens  ?  The  clear  and  indisputa 
ble  cause  'was,  that  the  majority  of  that  house  ivere  returned  by 
borough-monger 'in g,  and  corruption,  and  that  the  Parliaments  con 
tinued  for  seven  years." 

"Mr.  Coke  (of  Norfolk)  said — It  was  the  duty  of  every  inan  to 
oppose  the  attempt  to  arm  ministers  with  new  powers  of  collecting 
money.  He  was  an  old  member  of  Parliament,  and  he  had  often 
seen  and  well  knew  the  profligate  mode  in  which  the  public  money 
was  squandered  :  he  would  not  trust  them  with  a  single  farthing. 
He  'would  go  the  full  length  of  asserting  that  this  was  a  corrufit 
house,  from  which  no  good  could  be  ex/icctcd.  Ministers  had  no- 


PREFACE.  XXXV 

thing  to  do  but  to  summon  their  troops,  and  they  had  a  majority 
instantly  at  their  command  ;  it  is  in  fact  a  joke  upon  the  country, 
and  the  people  felt  it  to  be  so  from  one  end  of  the  kingdom  to  the 
other." 

"  Mr.  Ricardo  maintained,  at  some  length,  that  the  idea  of  there 
being  a  sinking  fund  was  nothing  but  a  delusion. 

"  Before  he  sat  down,  he  could  not  help  observing,  that  he  con 
curred  in  every  thing  which  had  been  said  by  the  noble  marquis, 
regarding  the  necessity  of  a  reform  in  the  representation  of  that 
house." 

As  Earl  Grey  has  rendered  this  subject  of  British  re 
presentation  and  election  of  importance  to  us,  I  will  set  it 
in  a  broader  light  by  additional  extracts  from  the  debates 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  as  I  find  them  reported  in  the 
ministerial  newspaper,  the  London  Courier.  The  speak 
ers,  with  the  exception  of  Lord  Cochrane,  are  all  mem 
bers  of  considerable  distinction. 

"  Mr.  Tierney  asked  (Feb.  7th,  1817,)  if  the  house  recollected  the 
number  of  holders  of  offices  now  sitting  there.  There  were  not  less 
than  sixty  of  these  gentlemen,  all  of  whom  were  liable  to  be  dis 
missed  at  pleasure.  If  they  deducted  their  number  from  some  of 
the  ministerial  majorities,  the  result  would  appear,  that  the  fair  and 
free  sense  of  the  house  was  against  the  measures  of  ministers. 
Many  members,  too,  were  certainly  connected  by  the  ties  of  rela 
tionship  to  those  who  were  in  power." 

"Mr.  Brougham  said  (June  8th,  1819,)  that  the  whole  of  that 
which  gave  the  patronage  of  a  borough  in  the  county  he  had  men 
tioned,  which  returned  two  members,  and  which  had  never  been 
disputed,  was  the  gross  and  wilful  abuse  of  a  great  charitable  estate^ 
intended  strictly  for  the  education  of  the  floor." 

u  Mr.  Brougham  said  (Feb.  17,  1818,)  that  in  the  last  year  of 
every  Parliament,  more  benefit  accrued  to  the  public  than  during- 
all  the  preceding  years  of  its  existence." 

"  Mr.  Calvert  said  (Feb.  7th,  1817,)  that  he  was  one  of  six  persons 
who  had  sent  two  members  to  Parliament,  and  for  which,  each  mem 
ber  paid  4,500/." 

"Lord  Cochrane  said  (June  20th,  1817,)  he  remembered  very 
well  the  first  time  he  was  returned  as  a  member  to  the  house,  which 
was  for  the  borough  of  Hornton,  and  on  which  occasion  the  town 
bellman  was  sent  through  the  town  to  order  the  voters  to  come  to 
Mr.  Townshend's  the  head  man  in  that  place,  and  a  banker,  to  re 
ceive  the  sum  of  10/.  10s.  This  was  the  truth,  and  he  would  ask, 
how  could  he,  in  that  situation  be  called  a  representative  of  the  peo 
ple  in  the  legitimate  constitutional  sense  of  that  word  ? 

"  He  had  no  doubt  but  there  were  verv  manv  in  that  house,  who 


XXXVI  PREFACE. 

had  been  returned  by  similar  means.  His  motive,  he  was  now  fully 
convinced,  was  wrong,  decidedly  wrong;  but  as  he  came  home 
pretty  well  flushed  with  Spanish  money,  he  had  found  this  borough 
open  and  he  had  bargained  for  it ;  and  he  was  sure  he  would  have 
been  returned,  had  he  been  Lord  Camelford's  black  servant,  or  his 
great  dog." 

"  Sir  Robert  Heron  said  (May  19th,  1818,)  that  the  necessity  of 
reform  had  often  been  acknowledged  by  the  house  itself.  Distin 
guished  members  had  offered  to  prove  at  the  bar  its  corrupt  consti 
tution,  but  no  strong  desire  to  proceed  to  those  proofs  had  ever 
been  manifested  on  the  part  of  the  house.  The  corruption  was 
manifested  by  the  Grenville  act,  which  declared  the  house  no  longer 
fit  to  be  trusted  with  the  decision  of  its  own  elections — by  the  oaths 
and  precautions  which  it  declared  to  be  absolutely  necessary  to  pre 
vent  partial  decisions." 

"Mr.  Lockart  said  (March  2d,  1818,)  that  he  approved  of  the 
general  principle  of  the  (election  laws  amendment)  bill,  especially 
that  part  forbidding  the  distribution  of  cockades.  He  had  known 
30,000  cockades  given  away  at  an  election,  and  this  signal  of  party- 
was  thus  made  an  engine  of  bribery,  not  to  the  multitude  at  large, 
but  towards  persons  of  particular  trades." 

"  Mr.  Wynn  said  that,  at  one  election  he  knew  that  8,000/.  had 
been  given  to  special  constables.  At  another  election  1,500  special 
constables  had  been  engaged  at  half  a  guinea  a  day  each." 

Camclford  election. — "  Mr.  D.  W.  Harvey  observed  (July  2x1, 
1819,) — the  counsel  who  conducted  the  case  before  the  committee, 
undertook  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  conspiracy  for  procuring  a 
corrupt  return  for  the  borough  ;  and  the  report  of  the  committee 
showed  that  that  charge  had  been  in  a  great  measure  substantiated. 
The  facts  were — that  there  were  twenty-nine  electors  for  Camelford 
— that  that  borough  had  been  frequently  the  subject  of  sale  or  bar 
ter — and  that  it  was  now. the  property  of  a  noble  lord,  whom  he 
would  not  name,  as  those  who  had  read  the  report  of  the  committee 
must  know  that  his  lordship's  name  was  no  secret.  Not  long  before 
the  last  election,  a  meeting  of  five  of  the  electors  was  held  at  an  inn 
near  the  borough,  called  the  Allworthy,  which  meeting  was  joined 
by  a  certain  Reverend  Divine,  who  expressed  to  the  individuals  as 
sembled  a  desire  to  return  two  members  to  serve  in  Parliament  for 
the  borough  of  Camelford.  To  this  estimation  the  electors  did  not 
object.  They  annexed  only  one  condition  to  their  compliance  with 
it,  namely,  that  a  large  sum  of  money  should  be  deposited  for  cer 
tain  purposes  which  were  mentioned  in  a  whisper.  It  appeared 
that  with  that  condition  the  Reverend  Divine  would  not,  or  could 
not,  comply.  The  five  electors,  however,  did  not  abandon  their  de 
sign.  Accordingly  they  met  again  at  another  inn  near  Camelford, 
called  the  Five'  Lanes,  where  a  letter  signed  James  Harvey  was 
read,  offering  6,000/.  for  the  power  of  returning  two  members  for 
the  borough  of  Camelford,  to  be  distributed  among  any  fifteen  (be 
ing  a  majority)  of  the  electors. — This  proposal  was  agreed  to.  The 
reply  of  the  letter,  containing  the  acquiescence  in  the  proposal,  was 


PREFACE.  XXXV11 

addressed  to  Mr.  Sibley,  the  partner  of  Mr.  Hallett.  It  \vas  proved 
before  the  committee  that  Mr.  Hallett  had  held  up  6,000/.  before 
his  partner,  Mr.  Sibley,  and  had  said — "  Sibley,  do  you  think  the 
Camelford  electors  will  bite  at  this  ?"  As  a  security  for  the  money, 
it  appeared  that  the  half  notes  of  the  6,000/.  were  deposited  at 
Camelford.  Ultimately,  however,  the  conspiracy  failed,  and  the 
election  was  lost.  It  did  not  appear,  however,  that  the  half  notes 
had  been  returned ;  for  it  was  proved  that  Hallet  or  Sibley  had  said 
— "  What  damned  rogues  those  Camelford  electors  are !  do  you 
know  I  could  not  get  back  the  half  notes  from  them  without  making 
some  compromise  !" 

Mr.  Southey  had  informed  us,  in  Espriella's  Letters, 
that  Englishmen  regard  all  kinds  of  deceit  as  lawful 
in  electioneering, — that  they  stop  not  at  asserting  the 
grossest  and  most  impudent  falsehoods; — that  at  a  JVof- 
tingham  election  the  mob  ducked  some,  and  killed  others; 
that  on  such  occasions  no  frauds,  pious  or  impious,  are 
scrupled;  that  any  thing  like  an  election,  in  the  plain 
sense  of  the  word,  is  unknown  in  England;  that  a  majo 
rity  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  are  re 
turned  by  the  most  corrupt  influence;  that  seats  in  that 
house  are  not  uncommonly  advertised  in  the  newspapers; 
that,  although  oaths  are  required  of  the  voters,  they  are 
evaded  by  the  grossest  means;  that  votes  are  publicly 
bought  and  sold.* 

All  this  is  abundantly  illustrated  in  the  history  of  the 
English  elections  of  the  summer  of  1818.  Much  of  the 
time  of  the  courts  of  justice  and  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  since,  has  been  occupied  in  the  investigation  of 
cases  of  bribery  and  corruption,  involving  the  most  auda 
cious  fraud  and  perjury.  Besides  that  of  Camelford,  al 
ready  mentioned,  those  of  Grampound  and  Barnstaple 
may  be  cited  as  edifying  specimens.  The  tactics  of  the 
boroughs  are  thus  instructively  explained,  in  the  number  of 
Bell's  Weekly  Messenger,  of  the  29th  June,  1818. 

"  Among  the  various  scenes  now  exhibiting  in  the  progress  of 
the  business  of  the  general  election,  there  are  one  or  two  to  be  seen 
in  some  of  the  boroughs  which  deserve  not  only  to  be  generally 

*  See  Letter  xlviii. 


XXXV111  PREFACE. 

known,  but  which  we  should  hope  will  not  be  soon  forgotten.  \VV 
deem  it  a  duty  to  call  particular  attention  to  one  of  these  elective 
bodies.  Upon  the  arrival  of  their  late  member  to  repeat  his  canvass, 
he  was  met  by  the  electors  in  a  body,  and  the  first  question  put  to 
him  was,  whether  he  was  willing  to  pay  the  usual  gratuity  of  40^. 
per  man  ? — that  is  to  say,  to  invite  them  all  to  a  breakfast,  where 
each  should  find  a  401.  bank  of  England  note  under  his  saucer. 
The  gentleman  replied  that  he  was  really  not  rich  enough  to  give 
this  expensive  breakfast  to  three  hundred  voters ;  but  that  he  had 
rendered  the  borough  such  important  services  in  their  trade,  roads, 
and  harbour,  that  he  trusted  their  gratitude  would  not  seize  the 
present  occasion  of  turning  him  out ;  but  if  they  insisted  on  the 
40/.  per  man,  they  must  seek  for  some  one  who  was  better  able  to 
buy  them  at  that  price." 

"In  another  borough,  the  practice  of  the  election  we  understand 
to  be  as  follows: — The  price  of  the  worthy  and  independent  elec 
tors  is  50/.  per  head,  and  one  of  the  principal  men  in  the  town  being 
a  banker,  the  money  is  to  be  paid  in  his  notes,  and  at  his  bank. 
Upon  the  day  preceding  the  nomination  and  return,  the  town  crier 
gives  public  notice  for  all  the  electors  to  appear  personally  at  the 

banking  house  of  Mr. ,  to  consult  upon  a  suitable  member 

for  their  independent  borough.  Each  appears  accordingly,  and  re 
ceives  his  fifty  pounds.  On  the  following  day,  the  banker  appears 
at  the  hustings  or  town  hall,  recommends  very  warmly  Mr.  such  a 
one,  and  the  electors  immediately  elect  him.  No  questions  are 
asked  as  to  the  fifty  pounds,  or  from  whom  it  came,  and  no  one  of 
course  takes  any  blame  to  himself  for  having  received  a  bribe  from 
the  worthy  Mr.  such  a  one.  Each  is  willing  to  swear  that  he  never 
saw  his  money.  The  vote  is  given  only  from  good  will  to  the  banker, 
and  it  seems  that  the  oath  does  not  apply  to  gratuities  from  third 
persons." 

"  In  a  third  borough,  the  money  is  given  by  the  '  man  in  the 
moon,'  who  deputes  an  attorney  for  his  agent.  In  a  few  days  the 
same  attorney  produces  a  notice  from  the  same  man  in  the  moon, 
that  he  could  wish  their  respected  and  most  independent  borough  to 
be  represented  by  Mr.  A.  and  Mr.  B.  two  gentlemen  with  whose 
worth  he  is  acquainted.  The  recommendation  is  adopted  as  a  mat 
ter  of  course,  and  two  persons  as  fitted  for  corruption  as  themselves 
are  sent  into  Parliament.  In  a  word,  there  is  scarcely  a  slang  term 
or  a  slang  practice,  which  may  not  be  found  in  the  abominable  prac 
tices  of  some  of  these  boroughs,  in  which  perjury  is  made  a  comedy, 
and  the  most  atrocious  roguery  converted  into  a  jolly  pleasantry. 
All  these  things  are  going  on  before  our  eyes." 

In  scenes  of  disorder  and  violence,  the  late  election 
\vas  as  rich  as  any  former  occasion  of  the  kind.  The 
treatment  of  Sir  Murray  Maxwell  is  not  unknown  to  us 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Such  horrible  outrage  as 


PREFACE.  XXXIX 

was  practised  in  Westminster  by  the  mob,  and  such  ri 
baldry  as  was  exchanged  on  the  hustings  by  the  rival 
candidates,  "  men  of  rank  and  fashion/'  might  procure 
from  those  who  write,  within  the  Westminster  uproar, 
some  toleration  for  the  occasional  animation  of  our  voters, 
and  the  rough  declamation  of  our  stump  orators  in  the 
electioneering  contests  of  the  southern  states. 

The  condition  of  things,  in  Ireland,  with  regard  to  the 
choice  of  legislators,  is  truly  melancholy,  as  it  is  described 
in  a  late  book  of  travels,  possessing  the  highest  autho 
rity.*  "So  far,"  says  the  author,  "are  the  wretched 
tenants  of  the  cabins  from  receiving  benefit  for  their  in 
apposite  distinction  of  freeholders,  that  it  operates  a  con 
trary  way,  and  puts  them  to  expense  and  loss  of  time, 
without  the  privilege  of  having  any  choice.  Ruin  would 
inevitably  overtake  him  who  should  dare  to  presume  to 
have  any  opinion  but  that  dictated  to  him  by  his  landlord; 
and  the  candidate  who  should  solicit,  or  accept  without 
solicitation,  the  vote  of  a  tenant,  against  the  will  of  his 
landlord,  must  answer  the  irregularity  with  his  life,  and 
incur  the  general  odium  of  his  own  class  of  society.  Po 
pular  opinion  has  little  or  no  influence  in  the  election  of 
the  one  hundred  Irish  members.  Election  contests  with  us 
procure,  for  a  time,  some  consideration  for  the  lower 
ranks — what  dignifies  the  English  character  debases  the 
Irish.  The  magnitude  of  the  evil  is  greater  than  can  be 
conceived  by  those  who  have  not  had  an  opportunity  of 
witnessing  its  effects.  In  the  most  venal  places  in  Eng 
land,  besides  the  bribe,  some  condescension  is  expected: 
here  the  poor  voter  is  only  degraded  by  an  additional  link 
to  the  chain  of  his  dependency.  The  representation  of 
the  town  rests  mostly  in  each  body  corporate,  which  sel 
dom  exceeds  twelve  members.  The  selecting  for  repre 
sentation  by  the  extent  of  the  population  was  a  farce,  in 
which  the  people  had  no  assigned  part  to  act.  The  de 
mocratic  part  of  the  British  constitution,  quoad  the  Irish, 
had  better  not  exist." 

*  Observations  on  the  State  of  Ireland,  written  in  a  tour  through  that  COUIN 
try,  by  J.  C.  Curwen,  Esq.  M.  P.     London,  1818.     Vol.  II.  Letter li. 


Xl  PREFACE. 

"  In  some  instances,  the  very  favours  granted  the  Ca 
tholics  are  considered  as  sources  of  aggravation,  if  not  of 
insult — emblazoned  badges  of  slavery!  In  conferring  the 
elective  franchise,  they  have  been  denied  the  exercise  of 
a  free  choice,  the  proudest  prerogative  of  Englishmen; 
and  compelled  to  feel,  in  the  discharge  of  the  granted 
privilege,  their  own  inferiority/' 

4.  It  is  not  in  newspapers,  reviews,  and  parliamentary 
speeches  alone,  that  the  United  States  are  traduced  in 
England.  Her  writers  of  formal  treatises  on  subjects 
connected  with  general  literature,  and  even  with  natural 
science,  fall  into  preposterous  digressions  about  the  un- 
worthiness  of  their  "  American  kinsmen/'  and  are  not  al 
ways  inordinately  scrupulous  as  to  the  accuracy  of  their 
disparaging  statements.  I  have  an  instance  at  hand  in 
the  following  passage  of  a  late  work,  entitled  "The 
History  and  Practice  of  Vaccination,  by  James  Moore, 
Director  of  the  National  Vaccine  Establishment  at  Lon 
don,  Member  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgery,  &c." 

"The  freedom  that  reigns  in  the  United  States  of  America,  is 
incompatible  with  unanimity;  consequently,  the  vaccine  had  to 
struggle  there  with  a  long  and  -violent  opposition,  which  was  not 
much  allayed  by  the  exertions  of  the  President,  Mr.  Jefferson,  who 
patronized  the  new  practice;  yet  by  degrees  it  spread  and  was  in 
troduced  even  among  the  Indian  tribes.  It  was  in  the  year  1799, 
that  this  important  benefit  was  conveyed  to  the  United  States  from 
Great  Britain.  Indeed,  except  the  produce  of  the  soil,  what  that  is 
valuable  has  not  that  nation  received  from  us?  Certainly  their  arts, 
literature,  laws,  and  religion,  the  model  of  their  political  establish 
ments,  and  even  their  love  of  liberty. — Yet  when  Great  Britain  was 
hard  pressed  by  Napoleon,  the  United  States  submitted  to  the 
threats  and  depredations  of  the  tyrant,  Sec.  But  let  England  forget 
this  and  rejoice  in  being  able  to  add  the  vaccine  to  the  other  bene 
fits  conferred  on  the  Americans.  And  may  our  physicians  continue 
to  instruct  them  to  cure  and  prevent  the  diseases  of  their  country; 
may  our  poets  soften  and  delight  them;  and  above  all,  may  our 
philosophers  improve  their  dispositions,  and  perhaps,  in  a  future 
age,  their  animosity  will  cease,  and  there  will  spring  up  in  that 
country  some  filial  gratitude!"* 


C.  12. 


PREFACE.  Xll 

All  this  objurgation  in  a  history  of  the  vaccine!  The 
absurdity  and  malice  of  deviating  into  such  topics  on 
such  an  occasion,  would  be  manifest,  though  the  princi 
pal  accusation  should  be  acknowledged  to  be  sustainable. 
But  what  are  we  to  think  of  the  member  of  the  Royal 
College  of  Surgeons,  when  we  reflect  that  it  is  unjust; 
that  he  must  have  known  it  to  be  so;  and  that  it  may  be 
retorted  upon  England  with  tenfold  force?  There,  had 
the  vaccine  to  struggle  with  a  longer  and  more  violent  op 
position,  than  in  any  other  of  the  countries  into  which  it 
has  been  introduced.  No  heavier  disgrace  was  ever 
brought  upon  the  medical  faculty,  or  the  human  mind  in 
civilized  life,  than  by  the  prejudices  with  which  it  was 
encountered  among  a  part  of  the  British  population,  and 
the  pamphlets  sent  forth  against  it  from  the  British  press, 
in  the  names  of  London  physicians  eminent  in  their  pro 
fession.  The  opposition  to  it  amounted  to  phrenzy,  even 
in  such  quarters;  and  in  the  protracted  controversy,  the 
foulest  scurrility  was  mixed  with  the  wildest  raving.  I 
need  but  mention  Dr.  Moseley's  Essay  on  the  Lues  Bo- 
villa,  and  the  publications  of  Doctors  Rowley,  Squirril, 
Birch,  Lipscomb,  &c. 

In  the  very  book  of  the  director,  we  have  all  the  evi 
dence  we  could  desire  against  Great  Britain  on  this 
head;  and  in  the  voluminous  publication  of  Dr.  Ring,* 
there  is  still  more.  I  refer  to  this  work  particularly, 
because  it  was  well  known  to  our  faithful  historian,  who 
read  in  it  the  reverse  of  what  he  has  alleged  against 
America.  Dr.  Waterhouse  of  Boston,  acknowledges,  in 
deed,  in  one  of  his  essays,  which  Dr.  Ring  has  quoted, 
that  some  incredulity  was  displayed,  and  some  ridi 
cule  indulged,  in  New  England,  at  the  first  annunciation 
of  the  discovery;  but  Dr.  Ring  furnishes  the  testimony  of 
the  same  physician,  and  others  of  the  faculty  in  the  Uni^ 
ted  States,  to  show  with  what  rapidity  it  conciliated  even 


*  Treatise  on  the  Cow-Pox,  containing  the  history  of  Vaccine  Inoculation,  by 
John  Ki.ng,  Member  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  in  London.     Part  2d, 

VOL.  I.— F* 


PREFACE. 

the  warmest  zeal  in  its  favour,  and  was  carried  into 
general  operation.  One  of  Dr.  Waterhouse's  statements  to 
him,  of  1801,  says — "The  arguments  thrown  out  in 
England  against  this  noble  discovery  and  its  application, 
are  detailed  here  (in  Boston,)  but  a  great  majority  believe 
and  will  be  saved."  Ring  writes  thus  himself — "  Some 
unlucky  cases,  it  seems,  have  damped  the  ardour  of  a 
people  (the  Americans,)  who  received  the  new  inocula 
tion  with  a  candour,  a  liberality,  and  even  generosity 
much  to  their  credit/'  He  recites  the  cases  and  adds, 
"  This  was  enough  to  damp  the  ardour  of  any  nation/1 
A  few  pages  onward,  he  mentions  its  signal  progress 
throughout  the  United  States;  compliments  the  American 
government  for  communicating  it  so  promptly  to  the  In 
dian  tribes;  and  subjoins  the  following  remarks:  "In 
England  the  public  opinion  is,  at  the  time  of  my  writing 
this  ( 1 803,  Jive  years  after  Jenner's  promulgation  of  the 
discovery!)  rather  wavering.  Falsehoods  propagated  by 
the  most  base  and  despicable  characters,  have  been  too 
successsful."* 

It  occurred  to  me  to  place  the  extract  from  surgeon 
Moore's  work,  under  the  eye  of  Dr.  Redman  Coxe,  the 
present  learned  professor  of  Materia  Medica  in  the  Uni 
versity  of  Pennsylvania;  so  honourably  and  deservedly 
mentioned  in  Dr.  Ring's  work  as  the  physician  to  whom 
Pennsylvania  is  primarily  indebted  for  the  benefit  of  vac 
cination.  Dr.  Coxe  has  had  the  goodness  to  put  into  my 
hands  a  small  paper  of  notes,  which  I  copy  as  decisive 
testimony  on  the  subject,  since  his  knowledge  of  the  pro 
gress  and  establishment  of  the  discovery  in  the  United 
States,  is  more  direct  and  minute,  than  that  of  any  other 
person. 

"I  am  confident  I  am  correct  in  asserting,  that  no  novelty  of 
equal  importance  to  mankind,  was  ever  received  in  any  country, 
with  more  rapidity— more  unanimity,  or  more  extensively.  It  is 
true,  the  same  cautious  spirit  which  ought  invariably  to  govern  us 
in  concerns  of  this  nature,  led  many  medical  men  (not  to  oppose 

*  P.  760.  The  controversy  raged  with  unabated  violence  as  late  as  1806— r 


PREFACE.  Xllii 

its  progress,  but)  merely  to  await  the  result  of  experiments,  in  or 
der  to  determine  their  judgments.  What  opposition  has  this  Jen- 
nerian  blessing  ever  met  with  in  this  country,  that  equals  even  a 
tenth  part  of  that  which  it  received  in  Great  Britain?  Let  Mr.  Ring's 
elaborate  production  on  the  subject  of  vaccination  clear  us  from  the 
reproach  thrown  on  us. — In  that  work,  his  pen  has  unfolded  the 
opposition  it  encountered  from  almost  every  quarter  of  the  United 
Kingdoms  of  Great  Britain;  an  opposition,  the  effects  of  which  have 
scarcely  yet  subsided  there;  whilst  here,  for  many  years,  even  a 
whisper  against  it  has  not  been  raised. — Were  it  necessary,  I  could 
give  you  perhaps  one  hundred  letters  from  medical  men  in  all  parts 
of  America,  received  within  twelve  months  after  I  had  introduced 
it  here,  earnestly  applying  for  the  infection,  and  requesting  infor 
mation  respecting  the  disease.  I  saw,  in  fact,  nothing  like  opposi 
tion; — I  read  of  none  in  our  medical  journals.  An  uniform  desire 
was  every  where  evinced  to  spread  the  benefit  as  speedily  as  possi 
ble.  A  few  miserable  quacks  alone,  who  depended  on  the  small 
pox  for  their  daily  bread,  protested  against  it — and  even  of  those, 
the  greater  part  soon  were  obliged  to  yield  to  the  popular  opinion 
in  its  favour. 

"  Such  are  the  facts  which  stifle  the  inconsiderate  assertion  of 
Mr.  Moore — I  need  scarcely  add  to  the  number;  which  if  neces 
sary,  I  could  easily  do.  The  disease  had  fully  established  its  repu 
tation  in  America  within  two  years  from  its  first  introduction  here; 
and  long  before  its  claims  were  admitted  freely  in  Great  Britain." 

There  are  some  points  at  least,  as  to  which  "  the  free 
dom  that  reigns  in  the  United  States  of  America,"  would 
not  seem  to  be  incompatible  with  unanimity.  If  the  whole 
population  of  those  states  were  canvassed,,  perhaps  not 
one  individual  would  be  found  disaffected  to  the  form  and 
constitution  of  their  government.  The  number  malecon- 
tent  with  the  system  of  administration,  or  distrustful  of 
the  ability  and  integrity  of  the  present  executive  councils, 
is  certainly  so  small  as  to  disappear  on  a  glance  at  the 
mass  of  citizens  in  the  opposite  temper  of  mind.  FIRMIS- 

SIMUM  IMPERIUM  QUO  OBEDIENTES  GAUDENT. 

How  far  has  the  freedom  which  reigns  in  Great  Bri 
tain  proved  effectual  to  create  unanimity  as  to  her  political 
institutions,  and  the  composition  and  course  of  her  national 
councils?  Is  not  the  monarchy  itself  odious  to  a  multi 
tude  of  her  subjects?  The  mechanism  of  her  legislature 
and  cabinet,  and  the  system  of  administration  are  matters 
of  disgust  and  outcry  through  every  rank  and  class  of  her 


PREFACE. 

inhabitants.  From  the  highest  quarters  we  are  informed, 
and,  indeed,  the  fact  cannot  fail  to  be  perceived,  even  at  a 
distance,  that  the  great  majority  of  the  British  people 
have  not  the  least  confidence  in  the  patriotism  and  disin 
terestedness  of  any  of  the  parties  in  Parliament,  or  of  the 
men  in  place;  all  are  believed  to  aim  only  at  the  possession 
of  power  and  patronage.  Among  the  lower  orders,  sedi 
tion  is  declared  to  have  a  permanent  abode,  and  to  prowl 
without  intermission.  "  There  prevails,"  said  Mr.  Lamb, 
in  the  House  of  Commons  (March  11,  1818,)  "though 
to  what  extent  I  will  not  pretend  accurately  to  define,  in 
all  the  manufacturing  districts,  a  spirit  always  active,  inve 
terate,  and  implacable;  not  exasperated  by  suffering;  not 
soothed  by  prosperity;  not  allayed  by  time;  a  spirit  ever 
laying  in  wait,  and  in  ambush,  to  take  advantage  of  the 
disasters  of  the  country." 

We  see  fully  verified  at  this  moment,  the  creed  of  this 
member  of  Parliament,  a  whig  leader:  the  habitual  leven 
of  insurrection  only  becomes  the  more  active  and  expan 
sive,  as  the  rate  of  wages  or  the  supply  of  food  declines. 
It  places  the  British  government,  in  the  season  of  ferment, 
as  at  present,  under  the  horrible  necessity  of  shedding, 
with  the  apparatus  of  war,  the  blood  of  the  guiltless,  per 
haps  loyal  peasant,  whom  the  want  of  occupation  draws  to 
the  convention  of  starving  manufacturers,  arid  hairbrain- 
ed,  or  counterfeit  demagogues.*  It  leads — I  cannot  say 
obliges — that  government,  to  resort  to  one  of  the  most 
hateful  of  the  devices  of  timorous  despotism — the  employ 
ment  of  spies  and  informers,  who  cannot  execute  their 
office,  without,  to  a  certain  degree,  studiously  exasperating 
the  discontents,  and  encouraging  the  delusions,  against 
which  it  is  the  alleged  object  of  their  mission  to  guard. 
It  does  more:  it  throws  the  constitution  off  its  poise;  it 
creates  a  potential  dictatorship  in  the  ministry,  who  either 
do  feel,  or  profess  to  feel  themselves  bound  to  consult  the 


*  See  the  history  of  the  Manchester  meeting,  of  August,  1816,  at  which 
women  and  girls  were  cut  and  trampled  down  by  corps  of  dragoons,  and  left 
mangled  and  weltering,  to  be  conveyed  in  carts  to  the  hospitals. 


PREFACE. 


tranquillity  of  the  state,  or  of  particular  parts  of  the  king 
dom,  at  the  expense  of  the  established  forms  and  rules  of 
law;  counting  upon  what  they  are  always  sure  to  procure, 
indemnity  by  vote  of  Parliament.  —  What  is  there  in  the 
American  republic  comparable  to  this  state  of  things? 

This  want  of  unanimity,  this  propensity  to  rebellious 
violence,  among  the  lower  orders,  has  placed  the  British 
rulers  under  another  embarrassment,  the  most  awful  that 
can  be  imagined,  and  far  outweighing  any  evil  in  our  si 
tuation,  produced  or  threatened  by  our  negro  slavery. 

According  to  the  best  authorities,  the  system  of  the 
poor  rates  in  England,  is  proceeding  to  take  the  whole 
produce  of  the  land  from  the  owner,  with  very  little  bene 
fit  to  the  poor.  It  already  "  amounts,  with  the  land  tax 
and  tythes,  in  many  parishes,  to  a  disherison  of  the  pro 
perty  of  the  landholder/'*  It  "  falls  exclusively  on  lands 
and  houses,  the  dividends  (exceeding  twenty-seven  millions 
sterling)  upon  the  unredeemed  national  debt,  of  eight 
hundred  millions  sterling,  being  wholly  exempt.  "f  Its 
operation  is  most  oppressively  partial,  independently  of 
this  last  circumstance,  so  unjust  and  invidious.  It  forms 
a  tax  thus  characterized,  which,  according  to  some,  must 
amount  for  the  year  1818,  to  ten  millions  sterling,!  per 
haps  to  twelve;  and  this  product  is  chiefly  consumed  in 
rearing  the  offspring  of  improvidence  and  vice.  It  is  fast 
multiplying  the  already  immense  number  of  paupers,  and 
widening  the  acknowledged  degeneracy  of  the  labouring 
classes.  §  It  exhibits,  in  short,  to  use  the  language  of 
Colquhoun,  one  ninth  part  of  a  numerous  nation  existing 
as  paupers,  vagabonds,  idlers,  and  criminal  offenders,  at 
the  expense  of  one  third  of  the  remaining  population."  \\ 
In  the  year  1812,  the  number  of  paupers  who  received 
parish  relief,  besides  vagrants,  was  1,208,125,  out  of  a  po- 


*  Report  on  the  Poor  Laws,  from  the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
1817.     Appendix. 

f  Observations  on  the  Poor  Laws.    By  J.  Lord  Sheffield.     London,  1818. 
t  Lord  Sheffield. 

§  See  Note  X.  at  the  end  of  this  volume. 
;i  Treatise  on  Indigence.     P.  262. 


PREFACE 

pulation  of  10,653,000.*  The  proportion  of  really  im 
potent  paupers  in  the  number  just  stated,  was  but  one 
seventh,  according  to  the  ratio  officially  returned  for  1804, 
"It  will  be  found,  on  investigation/'  says  Colquhoun, 
that,  of  a  million  and  a  half  of  paupers  with  their  families, 
now  living  chiefly  on  the  labour  of  others,  considerably 
more  than  half  a  million  are  in  the  vigour  of  life,  and 
whose  labour,  if  well  directed,  ought  to  produce  at  least 
ten  millions  sterling  beyond  their  present  earnings;  which 
sum  is  totally  lost  to  the  community,  in  addition  to  what 
is  expended  in  affording  them  a  feeble  and  scanty  subsist 
ence/^-  Since  the  termination  of  the  last  war,  this 
wretched  and  noxious  class  of  persons  has  been  progres 
sively  increasing  in  number,  and  deteriorating  in  charac 
ter. 

The  only  true  remedy  for  this  manifold,  portentous 
evil,  is  the  abolition  or  great  reduction  of  the  poor  rates. 
But  the  government,  though  it  has  before  it  the  alterna 
tive  of  ultimate  ruin  to  the  country,  dares  not  go  beyond 
palliatives.J  Near  a  million  of  sturdy  beggars  could  not 


*  Clarkson's Enquiry  on  Pauperism.     London,  1816. 

f  Treatise  on  the  Wealth,  Power,  and  Resources  of  the  British  Empire. 
London,  1814. 

1  The  late  act  of  Parliament,  (59  G.1IT.  1819,)  "to  amend  the  laws  for  the 
relief  of  the  poor,"  aims  only  at  mitigating,  not  eradicating,  the  evil.  Very 
little  confidence  seemed  to  be  entertained  by  Parliament,  in  its  efficacy  for  any 
purpose.  Mr.  S.  Bourne,  the  member  most  active  on  this  question,  had  unsuc 
cessfully  proposed  a  bill,  respecting  the  failure  of  which  I  find  the  following 
remarkable  observations  in  Bell's  Weekly  Messenger  of  17th  May,  1819. 

"The  two  great  interests  of  the  country,  the  agricultural  and  the  manufac 
turing  interests,  are  here  in  direct  conflict.  The  complaint  of  the  landed  in 
terest  is,  that  they  have  to  pay  the  poor-rates  for  the  manufacturing  labourers  : 
That  the  manufacturers  not  only  employ  and  wear  out  the  men,  but,  as  it  were, 
produce  and  call  into  existence  a  mendicant  population  ;  and,  after  they  have 
had  the  best  days  of  the  labourer,  and  encouraged  him  to  marry  and  rear  a 
large  family,  they  return  him  unto  the  parish  from  whence  they  first  took  him 

"The  object  of  this  bill  was,  that  all  who  resided  three  years  in  any  parish, 
should.be  settled  in  such  parish,  or,  in  other  words,  (for  such  was  its  purpose  as 
•well  as  its  effect,)  that  the  manufacturing  towns  and  districts  should  support 
their  own  old  and  sick  poor.  Accordingly,  all  the  manufacturing  districts  have, 
to  a  man,  united  in  opposition  against  it,  and,  by  a  private  address  to  every 
member  of  parliament  singly,  have  actually  succeeded  in  throwing  it  out,  and 
this  in  a  House  of  Commons,  the  majority  of  which  is  necessarily  of  the  landed 
interest.  We  must  confess  that  this  issue  of  the  bill  has  very  much  surprised 
us,  and,  we  believe,  neither  Mr.  Bourne  himself,  nor  any  of  the  committee, 
expected  this  event.  The  bill,  however,  is  lost  for  the  present  session." 


PREFACE. 

be  starved  with  impunity;  they  would  be  provoked  by  ab 
solute  deprivation  to  persevering  violence;  such  a  nucleus 
for  riot  and  rebellion,  is  not  to  be  set  in  motion,  to  gather 
actively  what  no  array  of  the  military  might  be  sufficient 
to  crush,  without  extensive  desolation.  Colonization  is 
now  attempted  as  a  means  of  relief;  and  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  is  chosen  as  the  theatre,  in  order  that  a  dou 
ble  purpose  may  be  answered:  but  this  expedient,  if  any 
number  of  the  vampyres  can  be  drawn  off,  will  be  like 
tapping  for  a  radical  dropsy.  The  poor  rates  will  conti 
nue,  with  the  taxes*  and  the  tythes,  generating  pauper- 


*  "It  was  acknowledged,"  said  Lord  Ebrington,  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
(April  28th,  1819,)  "  that  a  labourer,  whose  income  did  not  exceed  IS/,  a  year, 
paid  27s.  a  year  duty  on  the  salt  he  consumed."  Dr.  Phillimore,  in  the  course 
of  his  speech  of  the  same  date,  respecting1  the  salt  duties,  made  this  statement. 
"  The  bushel  of  salt  is  taxed  at  forty  times  its  value,  and  the  tax  falls  upon  all 
the  necessaries  of  the  poor.  No  tax  operates  more  on  their  morals  ;  and  it  had 
been  found,  that  wherever  it  prevailed,  it  was  the  sure  forerunner  of  crime. 
It  was  distinctly  stated  in  an  address  of  the  grand  jury  for  the  county  of  Ches 
ter,  that  the  profit  derived  from  selling  untaxed  salt  was  so  great,  and  operated 
so  powerfully,  as  to  taint  the  morals  of  that  part  of  the  community.  The  evi 
dence  before  the  committee,  derived  from  various  sources,  all  tended  to  esta 
blish  the  same  conclusion.  The  temptation  to  steal,  and  conceal  what  was 
stolen,  was  such  as  to  cause  the  practice  too  generally  to  prevail.'* 

The  following  quotations  from  the  debates  of  Parliament  will  illustrate  the 
operation  of  another  single  tax,  upon  the  lower  orders. 

"  Mr.  Gratian  suid,  as  to  the  dangerous  prevalence  of  the  fever  in  Ireland 
being  in  part  attributable  to  the  confined  air  of  the  abodes  of  the  poor,  there 
could  be  no  stronger  proof  than  the  relaxation  granted  by  government,  enabling 
the  parties  deprived  of  adequate  ventillation,  to  open  their  windows  without 
being  liable  to  the  window  tax." 

"if  a  single  individual,"  said  the  Marquis  of  Dounshire  (House  of  Lords, 
March,  1819,)  "lived  in  a  house,  it  became  liable  to  the  window  tax ;  and  owners 
therefore,  in  Ireland,  crowded  great  numbers  into  one,  and  shut  up  others,  to 
avoid  paving  the  taxes." 

"  Sir  John  Newport  said,  (May  13th,  1818,)  he  wished  to  inform  the  house, 
that  in  comparing  the  accounts  of  1814  and  1818,  it  was  found  that  no  less  than 
one-tenth  of  the  windows  of  the  kingdom  of  Ireland,  within  that  period,  1iad 
been  closed  up  to  avoid  the  tax,  and  he  should  appeal  to  the  house  whether  such 
a  circumstance  was  not  calculated  to  have  a  most  injurious  effect,  particularly 
on  the  poorer  classes,  by  depriving  them  of  air  and  light.  Taxation  in  Ireland 
had,  within  a  short  period,  increased  with  a  rapidity  which  was  grievously  felt." 

"  Mr.  liobert  Shaw  asked,  (April  21st,  1818,)  are  gentlemen  aware,  tfeat  un 
der  the  present  act  (for  taxing  windows,)  the  collectors  can  demand  an  entrance 
into  every  room  in  every  house  in  Ireland,  from  eight  in  the  morning  until  sun 
set,  and  insist  upon  admission,  under  a  penalty  of  20/.? 

"Mr.  Shaw  stated,  (May  6th,  1819,)  that" in  the  part  of  Dublin  called  the 
liberties,  the  houses  were  large  enough  to  be  subject  to  the  \v5n-Jo\v  tax,  and 
were  inhabited  by  the  poor  and  miserable.  The  government  had  felt  that  so 
deeply,  that  it  had  announced,  that  \vhcrever  windows  had  been  opened  to  faci- 


PREFACE. 

ism;  and,  above  all,  the  exorbitant  system  of  manufactures, 
which  perpetually  throws  back  upon  the  agricultural  dis 
tricts,  as  mendicants  and  desperadoes,  those  labourers 
whom  it  received  from  them  originally,  in  that  happier 
condition  of  body  and  mind,  which  is  the  regular  effect 
of  agricultural  life.  It  is  this  operation,  resulting  from 
the  English  law  of  settlement  as  to  paupers,  along  with 
other  adventitious  causes,*  which  makes  the  returns  of 
mendicity  and  criminality  from  some  of  the  agricultural 
counties  of  England,  larger  than  those  from  the  manufac 
turing  districts,  and  thus  libels,  as  it  were,  that  state  and 
occupation  most  favourable  to  the  moral  and  physical 
welfare  of  our  species. 

To  revert  to  Surgeon  Moore.  His  suggestion  about 
filial  gratitude  will  be  found  fully  answered  in  the  body 
of  this  volume,  as  well  as  the  chiding  remark  of  the 
Quarterly  Review,  in  the  article  on  Fearon's  Travels— 
that  "the  American  colonists  grew  up  in  prosperity, 
maintained  and  fostered  by  a  liberal  parent,  who  saw,  with 
heartfelt  satisfaction,  her  offspring  increase  in  strength 
and  stature,  and  advance  with  firm  and  rapid  steps  to 
wards  maturity."  I  rely  upon  the  facts  and  statements 
which  1  adduce  in  my  first  sections,  as  sufficient  to  dis 
pel  this  hallucination  of  the  reviewers. 

The  other  topic  upon  which  the  surgeon  has  touched, 
— the  animosity  of  the  Americans  against  Great  Britain, 
which  her  philosophers  are  to  correct,  in  lapse  of  time,  by 
improving  our  dispositions,  is  a  favourite  one  with  the 
travellers  and  reviewers,  and  is  treated  by  them  with  the 
more  emphasis,  because  it  serves  to  promote  their  main 


litute  the  circulation  of  air  and  prevent  infection,  the  tax  would  be  remitted.  It 
would  no  doubt  be  urged  that  but  few  had  availed  themselves  of  this  offer;  but 
that  was  because  they  had  unfortunately  too  little  confidence  in  the  veracity  ot 
government.  They  did  not  possess  besides  the  means  of  opening1  those  windows. 
This  was  proved  by  the  report  of  Dr.  Parker  in  1807  and  1812,  and  confirmed 
by  the  number  of  windows  closed,  according1  to  the  notices  given.  Those  no 
tices  amounted  for  the  last  three  years  to  thirty-two  thousand,  four  hundred  and 
twenty-four,  of  which  3,501  came  from  Dublin  alone,  and  it  might  be  inferred 
that  the  distress  was  great  which  would  thus  drive  men  to  deny  themselves  the 
light  of  Heaven  and  u  free  circulation  of  air." 

*  See  Colquhoun's  Treatise  on  Indigence,  p.  273,  4.  and  Treatise  on  the  Kc 
sources  of  the  British  Empire,  p.  12. 


PREFACE. 


xlix 


object  of  raising  aversion  and  distrust  in  the  breasts  of 
their  countrymen. 

On  this  score,  as  well  as  every  other,  great  injustice  is 
done  to  the  Americans.  No  small  number  of  them  are 
entitled  to  consider  the  imputation  as  a  sort  of  ingratitude 
on  the  part  of  a  Briton.  I  will  venture  to  assert  that  in 
no  nation,  foreign  to  Great  Britain,  had  she,  until  the  se 
cond  year  of  our  last  war,  so  many  warm,  firm  friends, 
and  blind  admirers,  as  in  the  American.  A  great  party, 
the  Federalists,  forming  a  decided  majority  in  seven  or 
eight  states,  numerous  in  most  of  the  others,  and  having 
a  full  proportion  of  the  desert,  intelligence,  and  wealth  of 
the  country,  were  contradistinguished  by  their  veneration 
for  her  character,  and  the  deep,  affectionate  interest  which 
they  took  in  her  prosperity.  They  exulted  in  her  successes 
over  France,  even  at  the  time  when  she  was  waging  war 
upon  their  own  firesides.  This  was  not  merely  because 
they  detested  and  dreaded  the  ascendancy  of  the  French 
military  despotism,  but  because  much  of  the  old  positive 
kindness  and  reverence  towards  her  remained.  She  might 
have  revived  it  entirely  by  a  course  of  generosity  and 
justice;  by  teaching  her  philosophers  to  attempt  the  "  im 
provement  of  our  dispositions,"  and  her  politicians  to 
regulate  their  language  and  conduct,  upon  a  different  sys 
tem  from  that  which  they  have  pursued. 

Habitual  ejaculations  of  contempt  and  ill-nature,  join 
ed  to  a  new  state  of  things,  have  a  sure  tendency  to 
produce  total  alienation.  The  new  state  of  things  to 
which  I  allude  consists  in  the  prostration  of  the  Gorgon  in 
France,  by  which  so  many  of  us  were  petrified;  the  con 
sequent  restoration  of  our  powers  of  vision  and  reflection, 
in  regard  to  its  colossal  antagonist;  and  the  remission  of 
those  intestine  heats  which,  having  their  origin,  in  part, 
in  an  inordinate  preference  of  the  cause  of  one  or  the 
other  European  belligerent,  conduced  in  turn  to  aggra 
vate  that  preference.  The  Jbiglo-mania  has,  I  believe, 
almost  universally  subsided;  but,  notwithstanding  the  stu 
died  contumelies  and  injuries  to  which  no  American  can 
be  insensible,  it  has  not  yet  been  replaced  in  the  same 

VOL.  I.— G* 


1  PREFACE. 

breasts  by  sentiments  of  hostility.  We  lament  that  peril 
ous  crisis  at  which  England  has  arrived;  when,  with  a 
crushing  apparatus  of  government,  a  most  distorted  and 
distempered  state  of  society,  no  reform  can  be  admitted, 
lest  it  should  run,  by  its  own  momentum,  to  extremes,  and 
produce  general  confusion;  when  her  statesmen,  over 
powered  by  the  very  aspect  of  so  much  morbidness  and 
obliquity,  are  compelled  to  exclaim,  Nee  vitia,  nee  reme- 
dia  pati  possumus.  We  cherish  and  esteem  the  English 
individuals  whom  we  possess,  and,  without  coveting  the 
presence  of  more,  we  are  ready  to  entertain  the  same 
feelings,  to  practise  all  the  charities,  towards  those  who 
may  come  among  us  at  any  time,  provided  it  be  not  for 
the  purpose  of  holding  us  up  to  the  scorn  and  derision  of 
the  world. 


CONTENTS. 


SECTION  I. 

POLITICAL  and  Mercantile  Jealousy  of  Great  Britain.  Peculiar  fate  of  the  North 
American  Colonies  in  being  constantly  defamed  by  the  mother  country, 
Her  early  jealousy  and  selfish  alarms.  Testimony  of  Evelyn,  Hume,  Pos- 
tlethwayt,  Child,  Gee,  &c.  Measures  to  prevent  the  growth  of  American 
manufactures.  Illiberal  colonial  policy.  Testimony  of  Adam  Smith,  of 
Dummer,  &c.  Scheme  of  confining  the  North  American  settlements  to 
the  sea-coast.  Early  panic  about  emigration  ;  attempts  to  repress  it,  &». 

SECTION  II. 

General  Character  and  Merits  of  the  Colonists.  English  testimony  in  their  favour, 
Quarterly  Review;  Burke  ;  Chalmers,  &c.  Character  of  the  first  settlers 
in  New  England  ;  in  Virginia ;  and  the  other  provinces.  Their  respecta 
ble  rank  in  life ;  their  love  of  liberty  and  independence  ;  the  excellence 
of  their  institutions ;  no  obligations  to  the  mother  country  on  this  score. 
Charters  how  obtained.  Uniform  endeavours  of  the  mother  country  to 
destroy  the  Charters.  System  of  religious  freedom  and  equality  esta 
blished  by  the  Colonists  ;  disturbed,  and,  in  some  instances,  subverted,  by 
the  mother  country.  Religious  intolerance  of  Massachusetts  extenuated. 
Political  intrepidity  of  the  Colonists ;  leading  traits  of  it  in  their  history. 
Their  domestic  morals  and  habits  ;  religious  spirit.  Their  attention  to  the 
object  of  general  education.  Their  moderation  and  beneficence  towards 
the  aborigines.  Their  physical  economy  and  prosperity. 

SECTION  III. 

Difficulties  surmounted  by  the  Colonists.  The  conquest  of  the  wilderness, 
Oppressive  administration  of  the  mother  country.  Absence  of  all  external 
aid.  Struggle  with  the  Indians ;  with  the  French  of  Canada.  Accusations 
of  the  mother  country,  as  to  the  treatment  of  the  Indians,  retorted.  Case 
of  the  Acadiansin  1755;  barbarous  conduct  of  Great  Britain  towards  them. 
Wars  which  she  made  in  America,  exclusively  her  own,  and  not  induced  by 
the  interest  of  the  colonies. 

SECTION  IV. 

Great  exertions  and  sacrifices  of  the  colonies  in  the  wars  of  Great  Britain,  be 
tween  the  years  1680  and  1763.  Expeditions  of  New  England  and  New 
York  against  Canada.  Hostilities  with  the  Indians  in  New  England  and  the 
Carolinas.  Provincial  expeditions  against  the  Spaniards  in  Florida.  Injus 
tice  of  the  mother  country.  Reduction  of  the  fortress  of  Louisbourg  by  the 
Provincial  troops.  Ungrateful  return  of  the  mother  country.  Braddock's 
affair.  Colonel  Johnson's  victory  over  the  French.  War  of  1756.  Mis- 


ill  CONTENTS, 

management  and  imbecility  of  the  British  generals.  Achievements  of  the 
Provincials.  Aspersions  cast  upon  them.  Insensibility  of  the  mother  coun 
try  to  their  merits.  Confirmation  of  the  contents  of  this  Section  by  British 
testimony. 

SECTION  V. 

Commercial  obligations  of  Great  Britain  to  the  Colonies.  Acknowledgments  of 
her  political  writers.  Amount  of  the  colonial  trade  at  different  epochs. 
Details  of  its  nature  and  productiveness.  Lord  Sheffield;  Mr.  Glover; 
Anderson ;  Chatham  ;  Mr.  Burke ;  Champion.  Consumption  of  British 
manufactures  by  the  colonies.  Good_fkilhuj>f  the  American  merchants. 
Rigour  of  the  British  monopoly.  Disadvantages  suHerecT by  the  Colonies. 
Benefits  reaped  by  Great  Britain  from  her  commercial  intercourse  with  the 
United  States  of  America. 

SECTION  VI. 

Affectionate  loyalty  of  the  Colonists  at  the  peace  of  1763.  No  designs  of  in 
dependence.  Refutation  of  Chalmers  and  Robertson  on  this  head.  Dis 
trust  and  despotic  aims  of  the  mother  country.  Her  ingratitude  and  harsh 
ness.  Stamp  Act,  and  its  train  of  outrages  and  contumelies.  Applause 
bestowed  upon  the  resistance  of  the  colonies  by  Chatham  and  Camden, 

.  Character  of  the  British  councils.  Their  ignorance  concerning  America. 
Enlightened  discourse  of  Glover  False  ideas  entertained  of  America. 
Overweening  confidence  of  the  British  ministry  and  nation.  Abuse  of  the 
colonies.  Colonel  Grant,  Earl  of  Sandwich,  &c.  Ferocity  of  the  hostili- 

*  lies  waged  by  the  mother  country.  Her  acrimony  of  feeling  and  expres 
sion.  Her  temper  of  mind  at  and  after  the  conclusion  of  peace.  Illusions 
in  which  she  indulged.  Oracles  of  Lord  Sheffield.  Contrast  between 

"her  dispositions  and  those  of  the  United  States.  Her  unremitted  enmity 
and  jealousy.  Evidences.  Disappointment  of  her  hopes. 

SECTION  VII. 

Titles  of  the  United  States  to  the  respect  and  good  will  of  Great  Britain.  Ani 
mosity  and  arrogance  of  the  British  periodical  writers.  Edinburgh  Re 
view — its  system  of  derision  and  obloquy.  How  distinguished  from  the 
I  Quarterly  Review  Ln  this  respect.  Instances  of  its  malevolence  and  incon 
sistency.  Article  on  Davis's  Travels ;  Transactions  of  the  American  Phi 
losophical  Society ;  Letters  on  Silesia  of  John  Quincy  Adams ;  Life  of 
Washington,  by  Chief  Justice  Marshall ;  Ashe's  Travels ;  Columbiad  of 
Barlow,  ike.  Sneers  and  Calumnies.  Exposition  of  some  of  the  contra 
dictions  abounding  in  the  Edinburgh  Review.  Reprisals  upon  Great  Bri 
tain. 

SECTION  VIII. 

The  Quarterly  Review.  Its  implacable  enmity  ;  false  logic ;  unworthy  pro 
ceeding  ;  invectives  and  misrepresentations.  Articles  on  American  works . 
— Inchiquin's  View  of  the  United  States — Lewis  and  Clarke's  Expedition — 
Life  of  Fulton,  by  Cadwallader  Colden,  Esq.  This  work  defended  against 
the  Quarterly  Review.  Question  of  Steam  Navigation.  Fulton's  merits 
asserted.  Controversy  respecting  the  invention  of  the  Quadrant,  called 
Hadley's.  The  claims  of  Godfrey  maintained.  Original  evidence.  James 
Logan.  Contradictions,  as  to  England,  detected  in  the  Quarterly  Review. 
British  Critic  :  London  Critical  Journal ;  their  ribaldry.  Examination  anci 
Refutation  of  the  charge  against  America,  of  having  declared  herself,  in 
Congress,  "the  freest  and  most  enlightened  nation  of  the  earth."  Speech 
of  Fisher  Ames.  Defence  of  the  American  Congress  from  other  charge* 
Retort  upon  the  British  Parliament. 


CONTENTS.  liii 


SECTION  IX. 

Accusations  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  respecting  the  existence  of  negro  slavery 
in  the  United  States.  Early  upbraidings  of  England  on  the  same  head. 
Her  share  in  the  establishment  of  that  evil.  Early  denunciations  of  it  by 
the  colonists.  Their  repeated  attempts  to  arrest  the  introduction  of  ne 
groes.  Inflexibility  of  the  mother  country.  American  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade.  Measures  of  the  State  Legislatures  and  of  Congress  on  this 
subject.  United  States  have  the  merit  of  priority.  Historical  deduction 
of  the  British  slave  trade.  Its  extent  and  criminality.  Developments.  His 
tory  of  the  British  abolition  of  the  slave  trade.  Its  interested  and  imper-^ 
feet  character.  Selfish  aims  of  the  British  government.  Supineness  of  the 
ministry  until  the  approach  of  the  peace  of  1814.  Concession  of  the  slave 
trade  to  Spain,  Portugal,  and  France.  Fatal  consequences.  British  capital 
largely  engaged  in  the  illicit  trade.  Negociations  at  the  Congress  of  Vi 
enna.  Insidious  propositions  of  Lord  Castlereagh.  Miscarriage.  British 
West  Indies  adequately  supplied  with  negroes  since  the  British  abolition. 
West  India  slavery  ;  its  character ;  in  no  degree  mitigated.  Renewed  ne 
gotiations  with  foreign  powers.  Their  well  founded  distrust  of  the  views  of 
Great  Britain  in  relation  to  the  general  abolition  of  the  slave  trade.  De 
velopment  of  those  views.  Frustration  of  her  scheme  of  establishing  a 
right,  of  search  in  time  of  peace.  Hypocrisy  and  imposture.  Present  state 
of  the  slave  trade.  Vindication  of  the  United  States,  as  regards  the  exist 
ence  of  slavery  within  their  bosom.  What  they  have  separately  effected, 
in  the  way  of  abolition.  Colonization.  Character  and  condition  of  the 
American  negroes,  free  and  enslaved.  Character  and  deportment  of  the 
American  masters.  Denial  of  the  allegations  of  the  British  travellers.  " 
State  of  the  British  Poor. 

SUBJECTS  OF  THE  NOTES. 

Indian  Warfare.  Locke's  Constitutions  for  Carolina.  Religious  toleration  of 
Rhode  Island.  Maroon  War  in  Jamaica.  Petition  of  the  Acadians  to  the 
King  of  Great  Britain.  Reduction  of  Louisbourg.  Braddock's  papers. 
London's  campaigns.  Franklin's  refutation  of  1,he  British  calumnies  of 
1759.  Character  of  the  Royal  Governors  of  the  Colonies.  Credulity  of 
the  British  Cabinet  of  1776 — 8—9.  Debates  in  Parliament  on  American 
cowardice.  Utility  of  the  North  American  colonies  as  an  asylum  for  Bri 
tish  subjects.  The  American  Philosophical  Society.  Marshall's  Life  of 
Washington.  State  of  society  in  Great  Britain  as  to  the  vices  of  intoxica 
tion  and  gambling ;  cruelty  to  animals;  brutal  sports  and  conflicts,  &c.  Dr. 
Colden.  Steam  Boat  navigation.  James  Logan.  Position  of  the  English 
and  Irish  Roman  Catholics.  Kidnapping  in  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States.  British  Poor,  and  Poor  Laws.  Established  Church  in  England. 
British  prisons ;  criminal  calendar;  administration  of  penal  justice,  finan 
cial  affairs,  &c. 


MEMENTOS. 


•'LET  us  read,  and  recollect,  and  impress  upon  our  souls,  the  views  and 
ends  of  our  own  more  immediate  forefathers,  in  exchanging  their  native 
country  for  a  dreary,  inhospitable  wilderness.  Let  us  examine  into  the 
nature  of  that  power,  and  the  cruelty  of  that  oppression,  which  drove 
them  from  their  homes.  Recollect  their  amazing  fortitude,  their  bitter 
sufferings  !  the  hunger,  the  nakedness,  the  cold,  which  they  patiently 
endured  !  the  severe  labours  of  clearing  their  grounds,  building  their 
houses,  raising  their  provisions,  amidst  dangers  from  wild  beasts  and 
savage  men,  before  they  had  time,  or  money,  or  materials  for  commerce  ! 
Recollect  the  civil  and  religious  principles,  and  hopes,  and  expectations, 
which  constantly  supported  and  carried  them  through  all  hardships, 
with  patience  and  resignation  !" 

Essay  on  the  Canon  and  Feudal  Law,  by  John  Adams,  Esq.  1765, 

"If  we  do  not,  my  lords,  get  the  better  of  America,  America  will 
get  the  better  of  us.  We  do  not  fear,  at  present,  that  they  will  attack 
us  at  home  ;  but  consider,  on  the  other  hand,  what  will  be  the  fate  of 
the  sugar  islands,  what  will  be  the  fate  of  our  trade  to  that  country. 
That,  my  lords,  is  a  most  valuable,  important  consideration  ;  it  is  the 
best  feather  in  our  wing.  The  people  of  America  are  preparing  to 
raise  a  navy  ;  they  have  begun  in  part ;  trade  will  beget  opulence,  and 
by  that  means  they  will  be  enabled  to  hire  ships  from  foreign  powers." 

Lord  Mansfield,  House  of  Lords,  1775. 

"  It  hurts  me  to  hear  a  proposition  urged  in  this  house,  so  destruc 
tive  to  the  welfare  of  Britain,  as  American  independence.  Would  not 
the  independency  of  America  be  the  eve  of  their  advancement  into  a 
flourishing  naval  poiuer?  Their  situation  commanding  a  species  of  supe 
riority  over  all  the  earth,  they  would  soon  rival  Europe  in  arts,  as  well 
as  grandeur,  and  their  power  in  particular  would  rear  itself  on  the 
decay  of  ours.  Are  we,  then,  so  lost  to  all  the  feelings  of  patriotism, 
that,  with  a  wanton  hand,  we  would  lay  the  foundation  stone  of  a  block 
ade  against  our  own  existence  ? 

Mr.  Pulteney,  House  of  Commons,  1777. 

"We  have  heard,  indeed,  the  prosperity  of  America  declared,  by 
Lord  Sidrnouth,  when  he  was  minister  of  state,  to  be  an  awful  warning 
to  Great  Britain,  never  hereafter  to  colonize  a  new  country.  Merciful 
Heaven  !  that  the  brethren  of  our  ancestors  should  have  founded  a 
mighty  empire,  indefinite  in  its  increase — an  empire,  which  retains,  and 
is  spreading,  all  that  constitutes  "  country"  in  a  wise  man's  feelings, 
viz.  the  same  laws,  the  same  customs,  the  same  religion,  and,  above  all, 
the  same  language  ;  that,  in  short,  to  have  been  the  mother  of  a  pros 
perous  empire,  is  to  be  a  -warning  to  Great  Britain  !  And  whence  this 
dread  ?  Because,  forsooth,  our  eldest  born,  when  of  age,  had  set  up 
for  himself;  and  not  only  preserving,  but,  in  an  almost  incalculable 


Ivi  MEMENTOS. 

proportion,  increasing  the  advantages  of  former  reciprocal  intercourse, 
had  saved  us  the  expense  and  anxiety  of  defending1,  and  the  embarrass 
ment  of  governing  a  country  three  thousand  miles  distant !  That  this 
separation  was  at  length  effected  by  violence,  and  the  horrors  of  a  civil 
war,  is  to  be  attributed  solely  to  the  ignorance  and  corruption  of  the 
many,  and  the  perilous  bigotry  of  a  few." — No.  24,  Edinburgh  Review. 

"  Let  our  jealousy  burn  as  it  may  ;  let  our  intolerance  of  America  be 
as  unreasonably  violent  as  we  please  ;  still,  it  is  plain  that  she  is  a  power, 
in  spite  of  us,  rapidly  rising  to  supremacy ;  or,  at  least,  that  each  year 
so  mightily  augments  her  strength,  as  to  overtake,  by  a  most  sensible 
distance,  even  the  most  formidable  of  her  competitors." 

JVb.  49,  Edinburgh  Review. 

"  In  one  of  my  late  rambles,  I  accidentally  fell  into  the  company  of 
half  a  dozen  gentlemen,  who  were  engaged  in  a  warm  dispute  about 
some  political  affair ;  which  naturally  drew  me  in  for  a  share  of  the  con 
versation. 

"  Amongst  a  multiplicity  of  other  topics,  we  took  occasion  to  talk  of 
the  different  characters  of  the  several  nations  of  Europe  ;  when  one  of 
the  gentlemen,  cocking  his  hat,  and  assuming  such  an  air  of  importance 
as  if  he  had  possessed  all  the  merit  of  the  English  nation  in  his  own 
person,  declared  that  the  Dutch  were  a  parcel  of  avaricious  wretches  ; 
the  French  a  set  of  flattering  sycophants ;  that  the  Germans  were 
drunken  sots,  and  beastly  gluttons;  and  the  Spaniards  proud,  haughty, 
and  surly  tyrants ;  but  that,  in  bravery,  generosity,  clemency,  and  in 
every  other  virtue,  the  English  excelled  all  the  rest  of  the  world. 

"  This  very  learned  and  'judicious  remark  was  received  with  a  general 
smile  of  approbation  by  all  the  company — all,  I  mean,  but  your  humble 
servant."  GOLDSMITH'S  ESSAYS — Essay  XL 


PART  I. 


SECTION  I. 


OF  THE  POLITICAL  AND  MERCANTILE    JEALOUSY  OF 
GREAT  BRITAIN. 

"  AMERICA  is  destined,  at  all  events,  to  be  a  great  and  SECT.  I. 
"  powerful  nation.  In  less  than  a  century,  she  must  have  a  s^-*^» 
"  population  of  at  least  seventy  or  eighty  millions.  War  can- 
"  not  prevent,  and  it  appears  from  experience,  can  scarcely 
<e  retard,  this  natural  multiplication.  All  these  people  will 
"  speak  English;  and,  according  to  the  most  probable  conjec- 
"  ture,  will  live  under  free  governments,  whether  republican 
u  or  monarchical,  and  will  be  industrious,  well  educated,  and 
"  civilized.  Within  no  very  great  distance  of  time,  there- 
"  fore, — within  a  period  to  which  those  who  are  now  en- 
"  tering  life  may  easily  survive, — America  will  be  one  of 
"  the  most  powerful  and  important  nations  of  the  earth; 
"  and  her  friendship  and  commerce  will  be  more  valued, 
"  in  all  probability,  than  that  of  any  European  state." 
Such  were  the  speculations  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  in 
the  year  1814.  In  looking  forward  to  what  this  journal 
predicts, — to  the  supremacy  in  power  and  character  which  the 
North  Americans  are  destined  to  reach, — there  is  something 
not  only  curious,  but  instructive,  in  the  fact,  that  they  have 
been  and  are  more  contemned  and  defamed,  than  any  other 
people  of  whom  history  has  kept  a  record.  Compared  with 
our  fate  in  this  respect,  that  of  Boeotia  among  the  ancients, 
severe  as  it  was  and  sufficiently  unjust,  may  be  described  as 
condign  and  lenient.  It  was  not  alone  in  their  exemption 
from  political  and  commercial  dependence,  that  the  colonies 

VOL.  i.  A 


2  POLITICAL    AND 

PART  I.  of  Greece  may  be  said  to  have  been  more  fortunate  than  thosr 

v-*"h*T^/  of  modei^i  Europe.     Neither  enlightened  Greece, — nor  even 

^  •**   imp'&fious  Rome,  or  rapacious  Carthage  whose  colonial  policy 

;  ,*  .-bore  a  nearer  resemblance  to  the  modern, — made  perpetual 

'  *var  upon  the  reputation  of  its  emigrant  offspring.     The  parent 

state  was  sometimes  exorbitant  in  its  demands,  and  tyrannical 

in  the  exercise  of  its  superior  force;  but  the  colony  had  not  t) 

contend  with  a  system  of  universal  detraction; — to  serve  as  i 

mark  for  the  arrogance,  spleen,  or  jocularity  of  orators,  poeb , 

and  reviewers. 

The  wise  man  of  Europe- — homo  sapiens  Europot — net 
satisfied  with  sneering  and  railing  at  these  distant  settlement;;, 
conspired,  at  one  time,  to  decry  nature  herself  in  her  opera 
tions  on  the  new  continent:  and  the  theories  of  Buffon,  Raty- 
nal,  and  De  Paw,  so  fashionable  and  authoritative  during  a. 
certain  period,,  though  now  so  entirely  exploded,  are  to  te 
cited  in  illustration  of  the  state  of  the  European  mind  towards 
the  Western  World.  The  feature  not  the  least  remark 
able,  belonging  to  this  case  is,  that  the  particular  mothe1- 
country  which  might  have  been  expected  to  be  most  tender  )f 
the  feelings  and  character  of  her  colonies,  out  of  a  due  regard 
to  justice,  gratitude,  and  her  own  interests,  was,  at  times, 
the  most  scornful  in  her  tone,  and  the  loudest  in  the  chorus  jf 
j  obloquy.  GREAT  BRITAIN  continued  to  throw  out  sarcasms 
and  reproaches  against  her  North  American  kinsmen,  after/ 
the  continent  of  Europe  had  adopted  the  opposite  style,  and/ 
had  even  passed  into  an  enthusiastic  admiration.  We  may\ 
pardon  vapouring,  and  invective,  and  affected  derision,  at 
the  juncture  when  her  authority  was  directly  questioned,  and 
her  colossal  power  braved  by  the  thirteen  pigmy  communities 
of  provincials;  and  some  allowance  is  to  be  made  for  the  play 
of  passions  strongly  excited,  during  and  immediately  after 
the  struggle,  by  which  she  lost  so  valuable  a  portion  of  her 
empire:  But  the  same  course  has  been  pursued  without  any 
abatement  of  virulence  or  exception  of  topics,  towards  these 
Independent  United  States;  it  has  not  been  abandoned  after  a 
second  war,  and  after  a  development  of  character,  resources, 
and  destinies,  which  would  seem  sufficient  to  silence  malice 
and  subdue  the  most  sturdy  prejudice.  When  the  "planta 
tions"  had  grown  into  colonies,  England  still  thought  and 
spoke  of  them  as  the  plantations: — since  the  coloniefc  have 
transformed  themselves  into  an  independent  and  powerful 
nation,  it  is  the  colonies,  with  an  imagery  to  which  increased 
jealousy  and  despite  have  added  new  and  more  hideous  chimf- 
ras,  that  are  yet  seen  in  the  English  speculum. 


MERCANTILE   JEALOUSY.  3 

We  know  that  some  of  the  states  of  antiquity  harboured  a  SECT.  I. 
mischievous  jealousy  of  the  prosperity,  spirit,  and  aims  of  their  ^^^<^^ 
colonies;  but  it  was  only  when  the  latter  had  become  truly 
formidable;  had  attained  to  an  equality  of  strength,  and  given 
unequivocal  evidence  of  indifference,  estrangement,  or  hos 
tility.  But  among  the  modern  colonies,  the  Anglo-North 
American,  were  precisely  those  which  stood  the  farthest  from 
this  relation, — which,  in  all  stages  of  their  existence,  whether 
we  consider  their  dispositions,  or  the  general  circumstances  of 
their  condition,  presented  the  least  cause  of  distrust  or  alarm 
to  the  powerful  parent.  One  of  a  truly 'magnanimous  and 
judicious  character  would  have  seen,  as  I  hope  to  prove,  abun 
dant  reason  for  treating  them  with  the  utmost  latitude  of  in 
dulgence  and  "  ceremonious  kindness."  England,  however, 
is  the  mother  country,  who,  although  perpetually  proclaiming 
the  weakness,  as  well  as  insulting  the  origin,  and  vilifying 
the  pursuits  of  her  plantations,  conceived  the  earliest  fears 
for  her  supremacy;  who  displayed,  throughout,  the  keenest  po 
litical  and  mercantile  jealousy.  It  is  true,  that  the  other 
European  powers  established  and  maintained  in  their  settle 
ments  on  this  continent,  a  stricter  commercial  monopoly,  and 
more  arbitrary  systems  of  internal  administration.  It  is 
equally  true,  however,  that  England  always  sought  to  secure 
to  herself  the  carriage  of  the  produce  of  her  North  American 
colonies;  to  engross  their  raw  materials,  and  to  furnish  them 
with  the  articles  of  every  kind  which  they  required  from 
abroad:  That  if,  from  the  cupidity  or  indifference  of  her  mo- 
narchs,  charters  of  a  liberal  genius  were  granted  to  the  first 
settlers — if,  from  a  like  cause,  or  national  embarrassments, 
commonwealths  thus  cast  in  the  mould  of  freedom,  were  suf 
fered  to  acquire  consistency,  and  to  become  identified  as  it 
were  with  their  first  institutions — she  made  incessant  attempts 
to  destroy  those  charters,  and  substitute  a  despotic  rule.  Her 
writers  on  the  trade  and  general  politics  of  the  empire,  her 
colonial  servants,  civil  and  military,  continually  called  for  a 
more  rigorous  monopoly  and  subjection.  It  was  owing  to 
extraneous  events,  and  to  the  firmness,  vigilance  and  dexterity 
of  the  provinces,  that  they  remained  in  possession  of  their 
liberties.  I  scarcely  need  remark  in  addition,  that  it  was  a 
scheme  of  administration,  tending  to  place  them  on  the  level 
of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  colonies,  which  impelled  them 
to  attempt  and  achieve  their  independence. 

The  main  purpose  of  this  worji  imposes  upon  me  the  task, 
of  adducing  some  portion  of  the  abundant  evidence  which 
books  afford,  in  support  of  .the  general  assertions  made  above: 


4  POLITICAL   AND 

PART  I.  And  it  appears  to  me  not  unadvisable  on  other  grounds,  to 
********  refresh  the  memory  of  the  public,  with  respect  to  the  early 
dispositions  and  proceedings  of  Great  Britain,  towards  these 
North  American  communities.  I  will  begin  with  the  point  to 
which  I  have  last  adverted — her  political  and  mercantile 
jealousy. 

1.  This  feeling  was  coeval  with  the  foundation  of  the  colonies. 
Nothing  similar  is  to  be  traced  so  high  in  the  colonial  history 
even  of  Spain  or  Portugal.  We  have  the  following  testimony 
in  Hume's  Appendix  to  his  account  of  the  reign  of  James  I. 
"  What  chiefly  renders  the  reign  of  James  memorable,  is  the 
commencement  of  the  English  colonies  in  America;  colonies 
established  on  the  noblest  footing  that  has  been  known  in  any 
age  or  nation." 

"  Speculative  reasoners,  during  that  age,  raised  many  ob 
jections  to  the  planting  those  remote  colonies;  and  foretold, 
that,  after  draining  their  mother  country  of  inhabitants,  they 
would  soon  shake  off  her  yoke,  and  erect  an  independent  go 
vernment  in  America." 

In  the  excellent  article  on  the  British  colonies,  of  Pos- 
tlethwayt's  Universal  Dictionary  of  Trade,  there  is  a  more 
particular  statement  to  the  same  effect. 

"  It  is  certain  that  from  the  very  time  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  the  father 
of  our  English  colonies,  and  his  associates,  first  projected  these  esta 
blishments,  there  have  been  persons  who  have  found  an  interest  in 
misrepresenting  or  lessening  the  value  of  them.  When  the  intention 
of  improving  these  distant  countries,  and  the  advantages  that  were 
hoped  for  thereby,  were  first  set  forth,  there  were  some  who  treated 
them  not  only  as  chimerical,  but  as  dangerous  :  They  not  only  insinu 
ated  the  uncertainty  of  the  success,  but  the  depopulating  the  nation. 
These,  and  other  objections,  flowing  either  from  a  narrowness  of  un 
derstanding  or  of  heart,  have  been  disproved  by  experience,"  &c.  &c. 

*'  The  difficulties  which  will  c.lways  attend  such  kind  of  settlements 
at  the  beginning,  proved  a  new  cause  of  clamour;  many  malignant 
suggestions  were  made  about  sacrificing  so  many  Englishmen  to  the 
obstinate  desire  of  settling  colonies  in  countries,  which  produced  very 
little  advantage.  But,  as  these  difficulties  were  gradually  surmounted, 
those  complaints  vanished.  No  sooner  were  those  lamentations  over 
than  others  arose  in  their  stead ;  when  it  could  no  longer  be  said  that 
the  colonies  were  useless,  it  was  alleged  that  they  were  not  useful 
enough  to  their  mother  country ;  that  while  we  were  loaded  with 
taxes  they  were  absolutely  free  ;  that  the  planters  lived  like  princes, 
while  the  inhabitants  of  England  laboured  hard  for  a  tolerable  sub 
Kistence.  This  produced  customs  and  impositions  on  plantation  com 
modities,"  Sec.  &c. 

Within  little  more  than  a.  generation  after  the  commence 
ment  of  the  plantations,  the  royal  government  anxiously  began 


MERCANTILE    JEALOUSY. 

those  formal  inquiries  into  their  population  and  manufactures,  SECT.  L 
which  were  so  often  renewed  until  the  period  of  our  revolt,  ^^^^^ 
and  of  which  the  results,  as  to  manufactures,  served  to  place 
the  jealousy  that  provoked  them  in  a  ludicrous  and  pitia 
ble  light.  In  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  commissioners  were  de 
puted  to  ascertain  the  growth  and  dispositions  of  New  England: 
And  we  find  her  agent  in  London,  in  the  time  of  Cromwell, 
informing  one  of  his  constituents,  that,  even  then,  there  were 
not  wanting  many  in  England,  to  whom  her  privileges  were 
matter  of  envy,  and  who  eagerly  watched  every  opportunity 
of  abridging  her  political  liberties  and  faculties  of  trade. 
Besides  emissaries  of  the  description  just  mentioned,  the 
ministry  of  Charles  II.  despatched  spies  to  watch  over  the  con 
duct  and  views  of  the  royal  governors  in  America.  From  the 
^ame  motive,  printing  presses  were  denied  to  the  plantations. 
We  are  told  by  Chalmers,  that  "  no  printing  press  was  allowed 
in  Virginia;"  that  "  in  New  England  and  New  York  there 
were  assuredly  none  permitted,"  and  that  "  the  other  pro 
vinces  probably  were  not  more  fortunate."*  When  Andros 
was  appointed  by  James  II.  captain-general  of  all  the  northern 
colonies,  he  was  instructed  "  to  allow  of  no  printing  press." 
In  an  official  report  of  Sir  William  Berkeley,  governor  of 
Virginia,  dated  20th  June,  1671,  there  is  the  following  charac 
teristic  passage: — "  I  thank  God  we  have  no  free  schools,  nor 
any  printing;  and  I  hope  we  shall  not  have  them  these  hun 
dred  years.  For  learning  has  brought  disobedience,  and 
heresy,  and  sects  into  the  world,  and  printing  has  divulged 
them  and  libels  against  the  best  government:  God  keep  us 
from  both."  Accordingly,  every  effort  was  made  to  shut 
out  the  pestilent  tree  of  knowledge.  On  the  appointment  of 
Lord  Effingham  to  the  government  of  Virginia,  in  1683,  he 
was  ordered,  agreeably  to  the  prayer  of  Sir  William  Berke 
ley,  "  to  allow  no  person  to  use  a  printing  press  on  any  occa 
sion  whatever." 

The  erect  port,  and  firm  tone,  of  the  legislature  of  the  infant 
Massachusetts,  not  only  filled  the  cabinet  of  Charles  II.  with 
alarm  for  the  metropolitan  sovereignty,  but  actually  overawed 
them,  so  as  to  prevent  the  measures  of  repression  which  would 
otherwise  have  been  pursued;  and  to  maintain  the  province 
in  the  license  of  action  necessary  for  its  prosperity.  Curious 
and  remarkable  evidence  on  these  heads  is  extant  in  the  Me- 


Political  Annals  of  the  United  Colonies,  chap.  15 


6  POLITICAL   AND 

PART  i.  moirs  of  Evelyn,*  who  was  one  of  the  council  of  Charles  II. 
*^-v~^s  His  language  deserves  to  be  quoted. 

"  The  6th  of  May,  1670,  I  went  to  council,  where  was  produced 
a  most  exact  and  ample  information  of  the  state  of  Jamaica,  and  of 
the  best  expedients  as  to  New  England,  on  which  there  was  a  long 
debate  ;  but  at  length  'twas  concluded  that,  if  any,  it  should  be  only 
a  conciliating  paper  at  first,  or  civil  letter,  till  we  had  better  informa 
tion  of  y°  present  face  of  things,  since  ive  understood  they  were  a  people 
almost  upon  the  very  brink  of  renouncing  any  dependence  on  y*  crown" — 
Vol.  i.  p.  415. 

"  The  first  thing  we  did  at  our  next  meeting,  was  to  settle  the  fornr 
of  a  circular  letter  to  the  governors  of  all  his  Majesty's  plantations 
and  territories  in  the  West  Indies  and  Islands  thereof,  to  give  them 
notice  to  whom  they  should  apply  themselves  on  all  occasions,  and  to 
render  us  an  account  of  their  present  state  and  government,  bu' 
what  we  most  insisted  upon  was,  to  know  (he  condition  of  New  Englana , 
which,  appearing  to  be  "very  independent  as  to  their  regard  to  Old  England 
or  his  Majesty,  rich  and  strong  as  they  now  were,  there  were  great  de 
bates  in  what  style  to  write  to  them  ;  for  the  condition  of  that  colony 
was  such,  that  they  were  able  to  contest  with  all  other  plantations 
about  them,  and  Mere  was  fear  of  their  breakimg  from  all  dependence 
on  this  nation." — Ibid. 

"  The  matter  in  debate  in  council  on  the  3d  of  August,  1671,  wa«, 
whether  we  should  send  a  deputy  to  New  England,  requiring  them  cf 
the  Massachusetts,  to  restore  such  to  their  limits  and  respective  pos 
sessions  as  had  petitioned  the  council;  this  to  be  the  open  commis 
sion  only,  but  in  truth  with  secret  instructions  to  informs  the  council  oft)  e 
condition  of  those  colonies,  and  whether  they  were  of  such  power  as  to  Le 
able  to  resist  his  Maty,  and  declare  for  themselves  as  independent  of  t/.e 
erowne,  which  we  were  told,  and  which  of  late  years  made  them  re- 
fractorie.  Coll.  Middleton  being  called  in,  assur'd  us  they  might  b  2 
curb'd  by  a  few  of  his  Ma(yf  first  rate  fregats,  to  spoile  their  trade 
with  the  Islands  ;  but  tho'  my  Lo  :  President  was  not  satisfied,  the  rest 
were,  and  we  did  resolve  to  advise  his  Ma(r  to  send  commiss'rs  with 
a  formal  commission  for  adjusting  boundaries,  &c.  with  some  other 
instructions." — p  417. 

"We  deliberated  in  council,  on  the  12th  of  Jany,  1672,  on  some  fit 
person  to  go  as  commisser  to  inspect  their  actions  in  New  England,  and 
from  time  to  time  report  how  that  people  stood  affected." — p.  423. 

When  the  real  amount  of  the  "riches  and  strength,  and  the 
power  to  resist,"  mentioned  in  these  extracts,  is  traced  in  the 
returns  made  from  New  England  at  the  era  in  question,  it  is 
difficult  to  think  of  the  apprehensions  of  the  British  court, 
with  any  degree  of  seriousness. 

2.  The  fisheries,  shipping,  and  foreign  West  India  trade  of 
the  colonies  had  scarcely  become  perceptible,  before  the  Bri 
tish  merchants  and  West  India  planters  caught  and  sounded 

*  A  work  of  a  very  interesting  cast  in  all  respects,  published  in  Lon 
don  in  1818,  in  2  vols.  quarto.  The  article  devoted  to  it  in  the  Quar 
terly  Review  has,  no  doubt,  made  the  most  of  my  readers  acquainted 
with  its  general  character 


MERCANTILE  JEALOUSY.  7 

the  alarm.  As  soon  as  the  colonists,  in  the  progress  of  wealth  SECT.  I. 
and  population,  undertook  to  manufacture,  for  their  own  con-  ^^^-^^ 
sumption,  a  few  articles  of  the  first  necessity,  such  as  hats, 
paper,  &c,  a  clamour  was  raised  by  the  manufacturers  in 
England,  and  the  power  of  the  British  government  was  ex 
erted  to  remove  the  cause  of  the  complaint.  The  Discourse 
on  Trade^_ojLSi r  Jnsi a h -Child,  a  work  published  in  1670, 
but  written  in  1665,  and  long  considered  as  of  the  highest 
authority,  expresses,  in  the  passages  which  I  am  about  to 
quote,  the  prevailing  opinions  of  the  day.  "  Certainly  it  is 
"  the  interest  of  England  to  discountenance  and  abate  the 
"  number  of  planters  at  Newfoundland,  for  if  they  should  in- 
"  crease,  it  would  in  a  few  years  happen  to  us,  in  relation  to 
"  that  country,  as  it  has  to  the  fishery  at  New  England,  which 
6C  many  years  since  was  managed  by  English  ships  from  the 
"  western  ports;  but  as  plantations  there  increased,  it  fell  to 
"  the  sole  employment  of  people  settled  there,  and  nothing  of 
"  that  trade  left  the  poor  old  Englishmen,  but  the  liberty  of 
"  carrying  now  and  then,  by  courtesy  or  purchase,  a  ship  load 
"  of  fish  to  Bilboa,  whtfn  their  own  New  English  shipping  are 
"  better  employed,  or  not  at  leisure  to  do  it." 

"  New  England  is  the  most  prejudicial  plantation  to  this 
"  kingdom, — I  am  now  to  write  of  a  people,  whose  frugality, 
"  industry  and  temperance,  and  the  happiness  of  whose  laws 
"  and  institutions,  promise  to  them  long  life,  with  a  wonderful 
"  increase  of  people,  riches  and  power;  and  although  no  men 
fcC  ought  to  envy  that  virtue  and  wisdom  in  others,  which  themselves 
"  either  can  or  will  not  practise,  but  rather  to  commend  and  ad- 
"  mire  it;  yet  I  think  it  is  the  duty  of  every  good  man  primarily 
"  to  respect  the  welfare  of  his  native  country;  and  therefore, 
"  though  I  may  offend  some  whom  I  would  not  willingly  dis- 
"  please,  I  cannot  omit,  in  the  progress  of  this  discourse,  to 
"  take  notice  of  some  particulars,  wherein  Old  England  suffers 
"  diminution  by  the  growth  of  the  colonies  settled  in  New 
"  England."  *  *  * 

"  Of  all  the  American  plantations,  his  majesty  has  none  so 
"  apt  for  the  building  of  shipping  as  New  England,  nor  any 
"  comparably  so  qualified  for  the  breeding  of  seamen,  not  only 
a  by  reason  of  the  natural  industry  of  that  people,  but  princi- 
u  pally  by  reason  of  their  cod  and'  mackerel  fisheries;  and  in 
"  my  poor  opinion,  there  is  nothing  more  prejudicial,  and  in 
cc  prospect  more  dangerous  to  any  mother  kingdom,  than  the 
"  increase  of  shipping  in  her  colonies,  plantations,  or  pro- 
:<  vinces,"  &c.— Chap.  10. 

Illustrations    of     the    spirit"  testified   in    these    extracts 


8  POLITICAL  AND 

PART  i.  from  Child,  may  be  collected  from  the  work  of_Josho;i 
v^-v-^/  Gee,J^QjQ.Jthe  Trade  and  Navigation  of  Great  Britain,"  pub 
lished  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  also  held 
in  great  estimation.  This  writer  proposed  plans  "  for  mak 
ing  the  plantation  trade  more  profitable  to  England,  by 
strengthening  the  act  of  navigation,"  but  suggested,  at  the  sam  •; 
time,  the  expediency  of  suffering  some  of  the  plantation  com 
modities  to  be  carried  directly  to  the  straits  of  the  Mediter 
ranean.  He  thought  it  necessary  too,  to  assign  many  reasons 
why  the  "  plantations"  neither  sought  nor  could  acquire  in* 
dependence.  The  following  passages  are  from  his  thirty- 
first  chapter. 

"  But  before  I  proceed  to  show  the  great  advantage  those  addition:.] 
materials  would  be  to  carry  on  the  aforesaid  manufactures,  I  thin  c 
proper  to  take  notice  of  an  objection  made  by  some  gentlemen,  whici 
is,  that  if  we  encourage  the  plantations,  they  will  grow  rich,  and  set  no 
for  themselves,  and  cast  off  the  English  government." 

"  I  have  considered  those  objections  abundance  of  times,  theo" 
tener  I  think  of  them,  the  less  ground  I  see  for  such  doubts  an:i. 
jealousies." 

"  It  must  be  allowed,  New  England  has  shewn  an  uncommon  stiffnes 
\Ve  think,  however,  all  judicious  men,  when  they  come  to  examine 
thoroughly  into  their  fears,  will  see  they  are  groundless  ;  and  that  as  t. 
seems  impossible  for  the  other  colonies  to  joyn  in  any  £>uch  design,  so 
nothing  could  be  more  against  their  own  interest:  For  if  New  Enr- 
land  should  ever  attempt  to  be  independent  of  tins  kingdom,  the  stop 
ping  their  supplying  the  sugar  islands,  and  coasting  and  fishing  trade, 
would  drive  them  to  the  utmost  difficulties  to  s'ubsistas  aforesaid  ;  and 
of  consequence  the  part  they  have  in  that  trade  would  fall  into  hands 
of  other  colonies,  which  would  greatly  increase  their  riches.  But  f 
some  turbulent  spirited  men  should  ever  be  capable  of  raising  any 
defection,  a  small  squadron  of  light  frigates  would  entirely  cut  olf 
their  trade,  and  if  that  did  not  do,  the  government  would  be  forcec', 
contrary  to  their  practice,  to  do  what  other  nations  do  of  choice,  vL, 
place  stand  ing  forces  among  them  to  keep  them  in  order,  and  oblige 
them  to  raise  money  to  pay  them.  We  do  not  mention  this  with  anv 
apprehension  that  ever  they  will  give  occasion,  but  to  shew  the  conse 
quences  that  must  naturally  follow." 

"Some  persons  who  endeavour  to  represent  this  colony  in  th:- 
worst  light,  would  persuade  us  they  would  put  themselves  under  a 
foreign  power,  rather  than  not  gratify  their  resentments,"  &c. 

"  Now  as  people  have  have  been  filled  with  fears,  that  the  colonies, 
if  encouraged  to  raise  rough  materials,  would  set  up  for  themselves  ;  a 
little  regulation  would  remove  all  those  jealousies  out  of  the  way,  as 
aforesaid,"  Sec. 

"  It  is  to  be  hoped  this  method  would  allay  the  heat  that  some  peo 
ple  have  shewn  (without  reason)  for  destroying  the  iron  works  in  the 
plantations,  and  pulling  down  all  their  forges  ;  taking  an-ay  in  a  violent 
manner,  their  estates  and  properties,  preventing  the  hiubandmen  from  getting 
their  plough  shares,  carts,  or  other  utensils  mended  ;  destroying  the  manu 
facture  of  ship  building,  by  depriving  them  of  the  liberty  of  making 
bolts,  spikes,  or  other  things  proper  for  carrying  on  that  work  ;  by 
which  article,  returns  are  made  for  purchasing  woollen  manufactures, 
which  is  of  more  than  ten  times  the  profit  that  is  brought  into  this 
kingdom  by  the  exports  of  iron  manufacture e." 


MERCANTILE   JEALOUSY.  9 

"The  present  age  is  so  far  unacquainted  with  the  cause  of  the  in-  SECT.  I. 
crease  of  our  riches,  that  they  rather  interrupt  than  encourage  it, 
and  instead  of  enlarging,  lay  hold  of  some  small  trifling  things,  which 
they  think  may  touch  their  private  interest,  rather  than  promote  the 
general  good ;  and  if  they  think  any  commodity  from  th~  plantations 
interferes  with  something  we  have  at  home,  some  hasty  step  Is  taken  to 
prevent  it ;  so  that  for  the  sake  of  saving  a  penny,  we  often  deprive 
ourselves  of  things  of  a  thousand  times  the  value." 

The  report  made  in  1731,  at  the  command  of  the  British  par 
liament,  by  the  Board  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  concerning  tlae 
"  trades  carrTe  Jon,  and  manufactures  set  up,  in  the  colonies," 
betrays  much  disquietude,  and  recommends  that,  "  some  ex 
pedient  be  fallen  upon  to  direct  the  thoughts  of  the  colonists 
from  undertakings  of  this  kind;  so  much  the  rather,  because 
these  manufactures  in  process  of  time,  may  be  carried  on  in  a 
greater  degree,  unless  an  early  stop  be  put  to  their  progress." 
The  report  carefully  notes  that  in  New  England  "  by  a  paper 
mill  set  up  three  years  ago,  they  make  to  the  value  of  =£200 
sg.  yearly."  The  measures  adopted  by  the  parliament  in  1732 
and  1733,  were  symptomatic  of  the  morbid  sensibility  com^ 
mon  to  all  classes  of  politicians  as  well  as  traders.  By  the 
act  "  for  the  better  securing  and  encouraging  the  trade  of  his 
majesty's  sugar  colonies  in  America,"  the  interests  of  New 
England  were  sacrificed  to  those  of  the  sugar  planters. 

The  petition  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence,  against  the 
sugar  colony  bill,  occasioned  a  debate  in  the  House  of  Com 
mons  in  1733,  some  parts  of  which  deserve  to  be  copied  as 
interesting  in  a  double  point  of  view. 

"  Sir  John  Barnard  moved  for  leave  to  bring  up  the  petition. — '* 

"  Sir  Wm.  Yonge  said,  I  must  take  notice  of  one  thing  which  I  have 
observed  in  the  petition.  They  therein  tell  us,  that  as  to  the  bill 
now  depending  before  us,  they  apprehend  it  to  be  against  their  char 
ter.  This,  I  must  say,  is  something  very  extraordinary  ;  and  in  my 
opinion,  looks  very  like  aiming  at  an  independence,  and  disclaiming 
the  authority  and  jurisdiction  of  this  House,  as  if  this  House  had  not  a 
power  to  tax  them,  or  to  make  any  laws  for  the  regulating  the  affairs 
of  their  colonies ;  therefore  if  there  were  no  other  reason  for  our  not: 
receiving  the  petition,  on  this  single  account  I  should  be  against  it." 

"  Mr.  Wennington — I  hope  the  petitioners  have  no  charter  which 
debars  this  House  from  taxing  them  as  well  as  any  other  subjects  of 
this  nation.  I  am  sure  they  can  have  no  such  charter." 

"  Sir  John  Barnard  alleged  that  the  language  of  the  petitioners  was 
*  that  they  humbly  conceive,  that  the  bill  now  depending,  if  passed 
into  a  law,  would'be  highly  prejudicial  to  their  charter.'  It  may  be 
that  this  House  has  sometimes  refused  to  receive  petitions  from  some 
parts  of  Britain,  against  duties  to  be  laid  on  ;  but  this  can  be  no  rea 
son  why  the  petition  I  have  now  in  my  hand  should  be  rejected.  The 
people  in  every  part  of  Britain  have  a  representative  in  this  House, 
who  is  to  take  care  of  their  particular  interest — and  they  may,  by 
means  of  their  representative  in  this  House,  offer  what  reasons  they 
think  proper  against  any  duties  to  be  laid  on,  But  the  people  who 
VOL.  T,  B 


10  POLITICAL   AND 

PART  I.  are  the  present  petitioners,  have  no  particular  representatives  in  tin* 
-^-T-^-  House,  therefore,  they  have  no  other  way  of  applying- or  offering  their 

reasons  to  this  House,  but  in  the  way  of  being  heard  at  the  bar  of 

the  House,  by  their  agent  here  in  England.     Therefore,  the  case  of 

this  petition  is  an  exception." 
«  The  question  being  put  for  bringing  up  the  petition,  passed  in  the 

negative." — ( Parliamentary  History, j) 

The  trade  of  the  northern  colonies  with  the  foreign  West 
India  Islands,  would  have  been  totally  prohibited,  according 
to  the  prayer  of  the  sugar  planters,  had  not  the  parliament 
apprehended  distant  consequences,  of  a  nature  incompatible 
with  the  general  British  policy  as  to  France.*  The  spirit  of  tht 
legislation  under  review,  is  strikingly  exemplified  in  the  law 
of  1732,  to  prevent  the  '  exportation  of  hats  out  of  the  plan 
c  tations  in  America,  and  to  restrain  the  number  of  appren 
c  tices  taken  by  the  hat  makers,  in  the  said  plantations,  &c.' 
So  also,  in  the  act  of  1750,  prohibiting,  under  severe  penal 
ties,  the  erection  of  any  slitting-mill,  plating-forge,  or  furnace 
for  making  steel,  &c.  Heavy  complaints  were  made  in  Great 
Britain,  that  the  people  of  New  England  "  not  satisfied  witli 
carrying  out  their  own  produce,  had  become  carriers  for  th-; 
other  colonies."  The  injustice  of  the  restraints  imposed  or 
solicited,  may  be  understood  from  the  circumstance  that 
New  England  had  no  staple  to  exchange  for  the  British 
manufactures.  "  Hats,"  says  the  Account  of  the  European 
Settlements,!  "  are  made  in  New  England,  which  in  aclan- 
"  destine  way,  find  a  good  vent  in  all  the  other  colonies.  The 
"  setting  up  this,  and  other  manufactures,  has  been,  in  a  great 
"  measure,  a  matter  necessary  to  them;  for,  as  they  have  not 
"  been  properly  encouraged  in  some  staple  commodity  by 
tc  which  they  might  communicate  with  their  mother  country, 
"  while  they  were  cut  off  from  all  other  resources,  they  must 
f<  either  have  abandoned  the  country,  or  have  found  means  of 
c£  employing  their  own  skill  and  industry  to  draw  out  of  it  the 
"  necessaries  of  life.  The  same  necessity,  together  with  their 
"  convenience  for  building  and  manning  ships,  has  made  them 
"  the  carriers  for  the  other  colonies." 

New  England,  Massachusetts  particularly,  was  constantly 


*  See  Account  of  the  European  Settlements  in  America,  vol.  ii.  p. 
179.  Moreover,  according  to  the^ornetiuthority,'"  The  northern  colo 
nies  declared,  that  if  they  were  deprived  of  so  great  a  branch  of  their 
trade,  it  must  necessitate  them  to  the  establishment  of  manufactures. 
For,  if  they  were  cut  off  from  their  foreign  trade,  they  never  could 
purchase  in  England  the  many  things  for  the  use  or  the  ornament  of 
Ijfe,  which  the}  have  from  thence,  &c." 

j  Ibid,  p.  175.  A.  1).  1757. 


MERCANTILE   JEALOUSY. 

arraigned  and  threatened,  for  contempt  of  the  act  of  naviga-  SECT.  i. 
tion,  and  the  subsequent  regulations  of  a  like  purport,  although,  ^^^^ 
by  the  confession  of  the  board  of  trade  itself,  in  its  reports, 
nature  left  them  no  alternative  but  disobedience,  or  a  long 
and  feeble  infancy.  These  restraints, — those  relating  to  ma 
nufactures,  at  least, — were  as  unnecessary,  as  vexatious  and 
unjust.  Our  experience  since  the  separation,  has  demonstrated 
the  extravagance  of  the  apprehensions  of  the  mother  country, 
when  referred  to  New  England  at  the  beginning  of  the  last 
century.  The  selfishness  must  have  been  extreme,  the 
jealousy  exquisite,  which  generated  the  phantoms  of  an  in 
dependent  empire  and  rival  manufactures  in  that  quarter, 
at  so  early  a  period.  The  opinions  of  Adam  Smith,  concern 
ing  the  British  legislation  generally,  in  the  case  of  the  Ame 
rican  colonies,  carry  with  them  an  authority  not  to  be  resisted, 
and  belong  especially  to  an  exposition,  such  as  the  one  in  which 
I  am  engaged.  I  am  the  more  strongly  tempted  to  adventure 
upon  pretty  copious  extracts  from  the  seventh  chapter  of  his 
fourth  book,  in  which  he  particularly  treats  of  that  legislation, 
since  most  of  our  domestic  historians,  inattentive  to  the  cry, 
if  I  may  be  allowed  the  phrase,  of  the  very  facts  which  they 
relate,  talk  volubly  of  the  "  wise  and  liberal  policy,"  of  Great 
Britain.* 

"The  policy  of  Europe  has  very  little  to  boast  of,  either  in  the  ori 
ginal  establishment,  or  so  far  as  concerns  their  internal  government,  in 
the  subsequent  prosperity  of  the  colonies  of  America." 

"  Folly  and  injustice  seem  to  have  been  the  principles  which  pre 
sided  over,  and  directed  the  first  project  of  establishing  those  colonies  ; 
the  folly  of  hunting  after  gold  and  silver  mines,  and  the  injustice  of 
coveting  the  possession  of  a  country  whose  harmless  natives,  far  from 
having  ever  injured  the  people  of  Europe,  had  received  the  first  ad 
venturers  with  every  mark  of  kindness  and  hospitality." 

"The  adventurers,  indeed,  who  formed  some  of  the  later  establish 
ments,  joined  to  the  chimerical  project  of  finding  gold  and  silver 
mines,  other  motives  more  reasonable  and  more  laudable ;  but  even 
these  motives  do  very  little  honour  to  the  policy  of  Europe.''^ 

"  The  English  Puritans,  restrained  at  home,  fled  for  freedom  to 
America;  and  established  there  the  four  governments  of  New  England. 
The  English  Catholics,  treated  -with  much  greater  injustice,  established 
that  of  Maryland ;  the  Quakers,  that  of  Pennsylvania,  &c.  &c." 

"  The  government  of  England  contributed  scarce  any  thing  towards 
effectuating  the  establishment  of  some  of  its  most  important  colonies 
in  North  America." 

"  When  those  establishments  were  effectuated,  and  had  become  so 
considerable  as  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  mother  country,  the  first 
regulations  which  she  made  with  regard  to  them  had  always  in  view  to 
keep  to  herself  the  monopoly  of  their  commerce  ;  to  confine  their  mar 
ket,  and  to  enlarge  her  own  at  their  expense,  and  consequently  rattier  t1* 

*  See  Ramsay—Colonial  Hi  story,  chap.i. 


POLITICAL  AND 

PART  I.  damp  and  discourage,  than  to  quicken  and  forward  the  course  of  their  pros 
perity.  In  the  different  ways  in  which  this  monopoly  has  been  exer 
cised,  consists  one  of  the  most  essential  differences  in  the  policy  of  the 
different  European  nations  with  regard  to  their  colonies.  The  best  of 
them  all,  that  of  England,  is  only  somewhat  less  illiberal  and  oppressive  than 
that  of  any  of  the  rest." 

"  England  purchased,  by  some  of  her  subjects  who  felt  uneasy  at 
home,  a  great  estate  in  a  distant  country.  The  price  indeed  was  very 
small,  and  instead  of  thirty  years  purchase,  the  ordinary  price  of  land 
in  the  present  times,  it  amounted  to  little  more  than  the  expense  of 
the  different  equipments  which  made  the  first  discovery,  reconnoitered 
the  coast,  and  took  a  fictitious  possession  of  the  country.  The  land 
was  good  and  of  great  extent,  and  the  cultivators  having  plenty  of  good 
ground  to  work  upon,  and  being  for  some  time  at  liberty  to  sell  their 
produce  where  they  pleased,  became,  in  the  course  of  little  more  than 
thirty  or  forty  years,  (between  1620  and  1660)  so  numerous  and  thriv 
ing  a  people,  that  the  shop-keepers  and  other  traders  of  England, 
wished  to  secure  to  themselves  the  monopoly  of  their  custom.  Without 
pretending,  therefore,  that  they  had  paid  any  part,  either  of  the  original 
pm'chase  money,  or  of  the  subsequent  expense  of  improvement,  they 
petitioned  the  parliament  that  the  cultivators  of  America  might,  for 
the  future,  be  confined  to  their  shop  ;  first,  for  buying  all  the  goods 
which  they  wanted  from  Europe  ;  and,  secondly,  for-  selling  all  such 
parts  of  their  own  produce  as  those  traders  might  fold  it  convenient  to 
buy,  for  they  did  not  find  it  convenient  to  buy  every  part  of  it.  Some 
parts  of  it  imported  into  England  might  have  interfered  with  some  of 
the  trades  which  they  themselves  carried  on  at  home.  Those  parti 
cular  parts  of  it,  therefore,  they  were  willing  that  the  colonists  should 
sell  where  they  could  ;  the.  farther  off"  the  better  ;  and,  upon  thataccountt 
proposed  that  their  market  should  be  confined  to  the  countries  south  of 
Cape  Finisterre.  A  clause  in  the  famous  act  of  navigation  established 
this  truly  shop-keeper  proposal  into  a  law." 

"  The  maintenance  of  this  monopoly  has  hitherto  been  the  princi 
pal,  or  more  properly,  perhaps,  the  sole  end  and  purpose  of  the  do 
minion  which  Great  Britain  assumes  over  her  colonies.  It  is  the  prin 
cipal  badge  of  their  dependency,  and  it  is  the  sole  fruit  which  has 
hitherto  been  gathered  from  that  dependency.  Whatever  expense 
Great  Britain  has  hitherto  laid  out  in  maintaining  this  dependency,  has 
realiy  been  laid  outm  order  to  support  this  monopoly ." 

"While  Great  Britain  encourages  in  America  the  manufactures  of 
pig  and  bar  iron,  by  exempting  them  from  duties,  to  which  the  like 
commodities  are  subject,  when  imported  from  any  other  country,  she 
imposes  an  absolute  prohibition  upon  the  erection  of  steel-furnaces 
and  slit-mills  in  any  of  her  American  plantations.  She  will  not  suffer 
her  colonies  to  work  in  those  more  refined  manufactures  even  of  their 
own  consumption  ;  but  insists  upon  their  purchasing1  of  her  merchants 
and  manui'acturers  all  goods  of  this  kind  which  they  have  occasion 
for." 

**  She  prohibits  the  exportation  from  one  province  to  another  by 
water,  and  even  the  carriage  by  land  on  horseback  or  in  a  cart,  of  hats, 
of  wools  and  woollen  goods,  of  the  produce  of  America  ;  a  regulation 
which  effectually  prevents  the  establishment  of  any  manufacture  of 
such  commodities  for  distant  sale,  and  confines  the  industry  of  her 
colonists  in  this  way  to  such  coarse  and  household  manufactures,  as  a 
private  family  generally  makes  for  its  own  use,  or  for  that  of  some  of 
jts  neighbours  in  the  same  province." 

"  To  prohibit  a  great  people,  however,  from  making  all  that  they  can  of 
every  part  of  their  own  produce,  or  from  employing  their  stock  and  industry 
in  the  ivny  that  the"  jitflpe  most  advantageous  to  themselves t  in  a  manifest 


MERCANTILE   JEALOUSY.  13 

violation  of  the  most  sacred  rights  of  mankind.     Though   they  had   not   SECT.  I. 
been  prohibited  from  establishing  such  manufactures,  yet  in  their  pre-  y^-.  -^_- 
sent  state  of  improvement,  a  regard  to  their  own  interest  would,  pro 
bably,  have  prevented  them  from  doing1  so.  In  their  present  state  of  im 
provement,  those  prohibitions,  perhaps,  without  cramping1  their  indus 
try,  or  restraining  it  from  any  employment  to  which  it  would  have  gone 
of  its  own  accord,  are  only  impertinent  badges  of  slavery,  imposed  upon 
them,  without  any  sufficient  reason,  by  the  groundless  jealousy  of  the  ' 
•merchants  and  manufacturers  of  the  mother  country." 

"  Of  the  greater  part  of  the  regulations  concerning  the  colony  trade, 
the  merchants  who  carry  it  on,  it  must  be  observed,  have  been  the  prin 
cipal  advisers.     We  must  not  wonder,  therefore,  if,  in  the  greater  part 
of  them,  their  interest  has  been  more  considered  than  either  that  of 
the  colonies  or  that  of  the  mother  country.     In  their  exclusive  privi 
lege  of  supplying  the  colonies  with  all  the  goods  which  they  wanted  ' 
from  Europe,  and  of  purchasing  all  such  parts  of  their  surplus  pro-' 
duce  as  could  not  interfere  with  any  of  the  trades  which  they  them- 
selves  carried  on  at  home,  the  interest  of  the  colonies  was  sacrificed 
to  the  interests  of  those  merchants." 

"  If  the  whole  surplus  produce  of  America  in  grain  of  all  sorts,  in 
salt  provisions,  and  in  fish,  had  been  put  into  the  enumeration,  and 
there  by  forced  into  the  market  of  Great  Britain,  it  would  have  inter 
fered  too  much  with  the  produce  of  the  industry  of  our  own  people. 
It  was  probably  not  so  much  from  any  regard  to  the  interest  of  America, 
as  from  a  jealousy  of  this  interference,  that  those  important  commodi 
ties  have  not  only  been  kept  out  of  the  enumeration,  but  that  the  im 
portation  into  Great  Britain  of  all  grain,  except  rice,  and  of  all  salt 
provisions,  has,  in  the  ordinary  state  of  the  law,  been  prohibited." 

"  The  non-enumerated  commodities  could  originally  be  exported  to 
all  parts  of  the  world.  Lumber  and  rice  having  been  once  put  into 
the  enumeration,  when  they  were  afterwards  taken  out  of  it,  were 
confined,  as  to  the  European  market,  to  the  countries  that  lie  south  of 
Cape  Finisterre.  By  the  6th  of  George  HI.  c.  51.  all  non-enumerated 
commodities  were  subjected  to  the  like  restriction.  The  parts  of  Eu 
rope  which  lie  south  of  Cape  Finisterre,  are  not  manufacturing  coun 
tries,  and  we  were  less  jealous  of  the  colony  ships  carrying  home  from 
them  any  manufactures  which  could  interfere  with  our  own." 

3.  As  the  plantations  advanced  in  numbers,  strength, 
wealth,  and  manufactures,  they  awakened  a  still  more  lively 
distrust,  and  jealous  vigilance,  in  the  mother  country.  In 
1715,  a  bill  was  brought  into  the  House  of  Commons  to  abolish 
all  the  charter  governments;  against  which  tyrannical  project, 
the  agent  of  Massachusetts,  Dummer,  published  an  elaborate 
and  masterly  pamphlet.  One  of  the  sections  of  his  c:  De 
fence  of  the  New  England  Charters,"  is  headed  thus, — "  The 
objection  that  the  charter  colonies  will  grow  great  and  formi 
dable,  answered:" — and  the  author  details,  with  much  anxiety, 
the  circumstances  which,  in  his  opinion,  established  the  pro 
bability  of  the  reverse.  He  begins  his  argument  with  stating, 
'  There  is  one  thing  I  have  heard  often  urged  against  the 
u  colonies,  and  indeed,  it  is  what  one  meets  from  people  of 
"  all  conditions  and  qualities.  'Tis  said,  that  their  increasing 
"  numbers  and  wealth,  joined  to  their  great  distance  from 


POLITICAL   AND 

PART  I.  a  (2reat  Britain,  will  give  them  an  opportunity,  in  the  course 
v-*"v-^~/  "  of  some  years,  to  throw  off  their  dependence  on  the  nation, 
"  and  declare  themselves  a  free  state,  if  not  curbed  in  time. 
"  I  have  often  wondered  to  hear  some  great  men  profess  their 
"  belief  of  the  feasibleness  of  this,  &c."*  The  House  c-f 
Commons  continued,  as  may  be  seen,  from  the  portion  gives 
above,  of  their  debate  of  1733,  on  the  petition  from  Rhode 
Island,  to  be  tremblingly  alive  on  this  point.  It  displayed 
its  sensibility  even  in  a  more  marked  way,  a  few  years  afte  % 
In  1740,  it  voted,  upon  the  complaint  preferred  by  tie 
general  court  of  Massachusetts,  against  governor  Belcher, 
for  denying  to  them  the  disposal  of  the  public  monies, — 
"  That  the  complaint,  contained  in  the  New  Englai  d 
u  memorial  and  petition,  was  frivolous  and  groundless;  rn 
"  high  insult  upon  his  majesty's  government,  and  tending  to 
"  shake  off  the  dependency  of  the  said  colony  upon  this 
"  kingdom,  to  which,  by  law  and  right,  they  are  and  ought  to 
"  be  subject."  When  the  general  court  ventured  to  censure 
one  of  their  agents,  Mr.  Dunbar,  for  giving  evidence  before 
parliament  on  the  bill  for  the  better  securing  the  trade  of  tne 
sugar  colonies,  the  House  of  Commons  voted,  nem.  con. — 
"  That  the  presuming  to  call  any  person  to  account,  or  pass  a 
censure  upon  him;  for  evidence  given  by  such  person  before  that 
House,  was  an  audacious  proceeding,  and  an  high  violation 
of  the  privileges  of  that  House." 

The  fate  of  the  Albany  plan  of  union,  familiar  to  the  me 
mory  of  all  who  have  read  our  history,  affords  additional 
proof  of  the  temper  which  it  is  my  object  to  illustrate.  A 
confederacy  of  the  colonies  for  the  purpose  of  defence  against 
the  French  and  Indians,  was  at  first  instigated  by  the  British 
government;  but  it  could  tolerate  no  arrangements  except 
such  as  were  incompatible  with  their  liberties.  It  finally  pre 
ferred  leaving  them  exposed  to  the  most  formidable  dangers, 
-and  itself  to  the  cost  and  trouble  of  their  protection,  rather 
than  acquiesce  in  any  scheme  of  coalition,  in  the  execution 
of  which,  they  might,  to  use  the  language  of  Franklin, 
"  grow  too  military,  and  feel  their  own  strength. "t  In  the 
pamphlet  which  this  great  statesman  published,  in  1760, 
to  show  the  impolicy  of  restoring  Canada  to  the  French,  there 
is  a  section  allotted  to  the  question,  "  whether  the  American 
colonies  were  dangerous  in  their  nature  to  Great  Britain."  He 
found  it  necessary,  on  every  occasion,  when  an  advantage 
was  sought  for  them,  to  set  in  formal  array,  all  the  considera- 

*  Page  73. 

t  See  Memoirs  of  Franklin,  p.  142,  American  edition. 


MERCANTILE   JEALOUSY.  15 

lions  which  pleaded  against  the  bare  supposition,  of  their  being  SECT.  I. 
disposed  or  able,  to  effect  their  independence.  ^^^^^^ 

To  lessen  the  danger,  or  obviate  new  hazards,  for  her  sove 
reignty  and  monopoly,  England  embraced  the  policy,  of  confining 
the  settlements  in  North  America  as  much  as  possible  to  the  sea 
coast.  The  great  points  of  preventing  the  French  power  from 
being  immoveably  established  at  their  back,  and  over  the  whole 
vast  interior;  of  securing  the  Atlantic  provinces  not  only  from 
this  evil,  but  from  their  cruel  scourge — the  Indians;  of  opening 
the  fruitful  and  beautiful  countries  beyond  the  Appalachian 
mountains  to  English  cultivation  and  empire,  were  all  postponed 
to  views,  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  they  were  more 
selfish  or  short  sighted.  The  plan  of  a  colony  on  the  Ohio, 
for  the  salutary  and  noble  purposes  just  enumerated,  was  con 
ceived  in  America  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  submitted 
fruitlessly  to  the  British  government  in  1 768,  and  offered  anew 
by  Dr.  Franklin,  in  1770,  with  the  engagement  on  the  part  of 
the  projectors,  to  be  at  the  whole  expense  of  establishing  and 
maintaining  the  civil  administration  of  the  country  to  be  set 
tled.  A  few  extracts  from  the  two  Reports*  of  the  Board  of 
Trade  and  Plantations,  on  the  subject,  to  the  Lords  of  the  privy 
council,  will  explain  the  favourite  system  in  relation  to  the 
plantations. 

"  The  proposition  of  forming  inland  colonies  in  America  is,  we 
humbly  conceive,  entirely  new:  it  adopts  principles  in  respect  to 
American  settlements,  different  from  what  have  hitherto  been  the  po 
licy  of  this  kingdom,  and  leads  to  a  system  which,  if  pursued  through 
all  its  consequences,  is,  in  the  present  state  of  that  country,  of  the 
greatest  importance." 

"  And  first  with  regard  to  the  policy,  we  take  leave  to  remind  your 
lordships  of  that  principle  which  was  adopted  by  this  Board,  and  ap 
proved  and  confirmed  by  his  majesty,  immediately  after  the  treaty  of 
Paris,  viz.  the  confining  the  western  extent  of  settlements  to  such  a 
si  distance  from  the  sea  coast,  as  that  those  settlements  should  lie 
-vithin  the  reach  of  the  trade  and  commerce  of  this  kingdom,  upon  which 
the  strength  and  riches  of  it  depend  ;  and  also  of  the  exercise  of  that 
authority  and  jurisdiction,  which  was  conceived  to  be  necessary  for  the 
preservation  of  the  colonies,  in  a  due  subordination  to,  and  dependence 
upon,  the  mother  country  ;  and  these  we  apprehend  to  have  been  two 
capital  objects  of  his  majesty9 s  proclamation  of  the  7th  of  October,  1763, 
by  which  his  majesty  declares  it  to  be  his  royal  will  and  pleasure,  to 
reserve,  under  his  sovereignty,  protection,  and  dominion,  for  the  use  of 
the  Indians,  all  the  lands  not  included  within  the  three  new  govern 
ments,  the  limits  of  which  are  described  therein,  as  also  all  the  lands 
and  territories  lying  to  the  westward  of  the  sources  of  the  rivers 
which  shall  fall  into  the  sea  from  the  west  and  north-west,  and  by  which 
all  persons  are  forbid  to  make  any  purchases  or  settlements  whatever, 
or  to  take  possession  of  any  of  the  lands  above  reserved,  without  spe 
cial  license  for  that  purpose." 

*  Fourth  vol.  Franklin's  Works,  article  Ohio  Settlement 


16  POLITICAL  AND 

PART  I.  "  The  same  principles  of  policy,  in  reference  to  settlements  at  ;;o 
^^^  -^_-  great  a  distance  from  the  sea  coast  as  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of  all  ad 
vantageous  intercourse  with  this  kingdom,  continue  to  exist  in  their 
full  force  and  spirit ;  and  though  various  propositions  for  erecting  m'w 
colonies  in  the  interior  parts  of  America  have  been,  in  consequence  of  ti is 
extension  of  the  boundary  line,  submitted  to  the  consideration  of  govemme,  it, 
(particularly  in  that  part  of  the  country  wherein  are  situated  the  Ian  is 
now  prayed  for,  with  a  view  to  that  object,)  yet  the  dangers  and  disad 
vantages  of  complying  with  such  proposals  have  been  so  obvious,  as 
v  to  defeat  every  attempt  made  for  carrying  them  into  execution." 

v"  "  The  effect  of  the  policy  of  this  kingdom  in  respect  to  colonizing 
America,  in  those  colonies  where  there  has  been  sufficient  time  for 
that  effect  to  discover  itself,  will,  we  humbly  apprehend,  be  a  very 
strong  argument  against  forming  settlements  in  the  interior  country  ; 
more  especially  when  every  advantage  derived  from  an  established 
government  would  naturally  tend  to  draw  the  stream  of  populatio  i; 
fertility  of  soil,  and  temperature  of  climate,  offering  superior  incre 
ments  to  settlers,  who,  exposed  to  few  hardships,  and  struggling  -with  jew 
difficulties,  could,  -with  little  labour,  earn  an  abundance  for  their  own  wants, 

•  but  without  a  possibility  of  supplying  ours  with  any  considerable  quantities." 
"  Admitting  that  the  settlers  in  the  country  in  question  are  mine- 
rous  as  report  states  them  to  be,  yet  we  submit  that  this  is  a  fact  which 
does,  in  the  nature  of  it,  operate  strongly  in  point  of  argument  against 
what  is  proposed — for  if  the  foregoing  reasoning  has  any  weight,  it 
certainly  ought  to  induce  you  to  advise  his  majesty  to  take  every  ne- 
thod  to  check  the  progress  of  these  settlements,  and  not  to  make  such 
grants  of  land  as  will  have^an  immediate  tendency  to  encourage  theii.** 

The  language  of  the  royal  servants  of  North  America  was 
of  the  same  tenor  with  that  of  the  Lords  of  Trade.  The 
commander  in  chief  of  his  majesty's  forces  there,  wrote  in 
17G9,  to  lord  Hillsborough,  who  presided  over  the  colonial 
department. 

"As  to  increasing  the  settlements  to  respectable  provinces,  and 
to  colonization  in  general  terms  in  the  remote  countries,  1  conceive 
it.  altogether  inconsistent  with  sound  policy.  I  do  not  apprehend 
the  inhabitants  could  have  any  commodities  to  barter  for  manufac 
tures,  except  skins  and  furs,  which  will  naturally  decrease  as  the 
country  increases  in  people,  and  the  deserts  are  cultivated;  so  that 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  necessity  would  force  them  to  provide 
manufactures  of  some  kind  for  themselves ;  and  when  all  connexion 
upheld  by  commerce  with  the  mother  country  shall  cease,  it  may  be 
expected  that  an  independency  in  her  government  will  soon  follow. 
The  laying  open  new  tracts  of  fertile  country  in  moderate  climates 
might  lessen  the  present  supply  of  the  commodities  of  America,  for 
it  is  the  passion  of  every  man  to  be  a  landholder,  and  the  people  have 
a  natural  disposition  to  rove  in  search  of  good  land,  however  distant." 

The  governor  of  Georgia,  above  named,  is  quoted  with 
great  deference  by  the  Lords  of  Trade,  as  having  written  to 
them  thus  : 

"  This  matter,  my  lords,  of  granting  large  bodies  of  land  in  the  I 
back  parts  of  any  of  his  majesty's  northern  colonies,  appears  to  me  | 
in  a  very  serious  and  alarming  light ;   and   I   humbly  conceive,  may 
be  attended  with  the  greatest  and  worst  of  consequences;   for,  my 
lords,  if  a  vast  territory  be  granted  to  any  set  of  gentlemen,  who 


MERCANTILE   JEALOUSY. 

really  mean  to  people  it,  and  actually  do  so.  it  must  draw  and  carry  SECT.  I, 
out  a  great  number  of  people  from   Great  Britain  ;  and  I  apprehend,  v^^-v-^, 
they  will  soon  become  a  kind  of  separate  and  independent  people,  who 
will  set  up  for  themselves  ;  that  they  will  soon  have  manufactures  of 
their  own,  &c.  in  process  of  time,  they  will  become  formidable  enough 
to  oppose  his  majesty's  authority,"  &c. 

It  is  curious,  and  demonstrative  of  the  sense  commonly  en 
tertained  of  the  views  of  the  British  government,  that  some 
of  the  advocates  for  the  project  of  interior  settlements,  in 
sisted,  that  such  establishments  would  serve  as  a  check  upon 
attempts,  on  the  part  of  the  old  colonies,  to  become  indepen 
dent,  by  draining  them  of  their  population.  There  is,  in  fact, 
much  plausibility  in  the  suggestion,  which  is  made  in  one  of 
the  memorials  on  the  subject,  of  the  year  l.TCT^^that.Qf.  .ge 
neral  Lyman.  "  The  period  will  doubtless  come,  when  North 
"  America  will  no  longer  acknowledge  a  dependence  on  any 
"  part  of  Europe.  But  that  period  seems  to  be  so  remote,  as 
"  cot  to  be  at  present  an  object  of  rational  policy  or  human 
"  prevention,  and  it  will  be  rendered  still  more  remote  by 
<e  opening  new  scenes  of  agriculture,  and  widening  the  space 
"  which  the  colonists  must  first  completely  occupy."4 

I  shall  not  be  considered  as  going  wide  of  my  subject,  if  I 
advert  here,  to  the  fact,  that  the  British  government  has  pur 
sued,  with  respect  to  India,  a  policy  similar  to  that  recom 
mended  in  the  foregoing  extracts,  in  relation  to  North  Ame 
rica.  I  need  only  appeal  to  the  authority  of  Mills,  who,  in 
his  "  History  of  British  India,' '"TJs^IhTs  eirTpIiatlc  language. 
"  If  it  were  p<)ssIF!e  for  iTiie"English  government  to  learn  wis- 
tc  clom  by  experience,  which  governments  rarely  do,  it  might 
tc  at  last  see,  with  regret,  some  of  the  effects  of  that  illiberal, 
"  cowardly,  and  short-sighted  policy,  under  which  it  has  taken 
"  the  most  solicitous  precautions  to  prevent  the  settlement  of 
"  Englishmen;  trembling,  forsooth,  lest  Englishmen,  if  al- 
"  lowed  to  settle  in  India,  should  detest  and  cast  off  its  yoke!11 

"  It  is  wonderful  to  see  how  the  English  government,  every 
"  now  and  then,  voluntarily  places  itself  in  the  station  of  a 
u  government  existing  in  opposition  to  the  people,  a  govern- 
"  ment  which  hates,  because  it  dreads  the  people,  and  is  hated 
"  by  them  in  its  turn.  Its  deportment  with  regard  to  the  resi- 
41  dence  of  the  Englishmen  in  India,  speaks  these  unfavour- 
"  able  sentiments  with  a  force  which  language  could  not 
'"'  easily  possess."! 

The  Edinburgh  Review,  in  quoting  the  first  of  these  para- 

*  See  Macpherson's  Annals  of  Commerce.     Quarto  Ed.  vol.  iii.  469 
f  B.  6.  vol.  iii.  p.  334,  336! 

VOL.  I.— C 


18 


POLITICAL    AND 


PART  i.  graphs,  affects,  indeed,  to  doubt  whether  "  the  obstructions 
which  have  been  thrown  in  the  way  of  colonization  in  In- 
"  dia,  have  arisen  mainly  from  the  idea  that  another  nation  of 
"  Englishmen  would  spring  up  there,  who  might  take  upon 
"  them  to  govern  themselves;"  and  it  cannot  admit  that  "  any 
"  Englishman  would  be  base  enough /not  to  wish  to  see  another 
"  America  arise  at  a  distance,  which  might  relieve  Britain 
"  from  the  fear  of  her  nVa/i/j/."*  But  no  one  that  has  read  the 
masterly  work  of  the  historian  whom  I  have  just  cited,  will 
hesitate  between  his  opinions  on  the  subject,  and  those  of  any 
anonymous  critic;  and  there  is  a  corroborative  circumstance 
too  notorious  to  be  questioned:  1  mean  the  attempt  sanctioned 
in  the  same  quarter,  to  prevent  the  diffusion  of  Christianity 
among  the  Hindoos,  from  an  apprehension  of  danger  to  the 
British  power.f  I  am  myself  unable  to  devise  a  juster  or 
stronger  commentary  upon  the  policy  towards  the  North  Ame 
rican  colonies,  than  is  furnished  in  the  following  general  ob 
servation  of  the  Edinburgh  critics,  in  allusion  to  the  case  of 
India.  "  We  cannot  conceive  any  thing  more  discreditable 
"  to  a  government,  than  to  place  itself  in  opposition  to  a  mea- 
<{  sure,  conducive,  and  almost  essential  to  the  prosperity  of  a 
a  great  empire,  merely  because  it  would  be  attended  with  a 
u  chance,  at  some  distant  period,  of  a  curtailment  of  the  ex- 
u  tent  of  its  dominions." 

It  is  not  easy  to  forget  that  at  the  commencement  of  the  ne- 
gociations  at  Ghent,  in  1814,  a  policy  was  betrayed  by  the  Bri 
tish  government,  in  the  demands  of  its  commissioners,  touching 
a  new  Indian  boundary,  akin  to  that  which  discountenanced 
the  plan  of  the  Ohio  settlement.  Nor  ought  we  to  forget  the 
eloquent  condemnation  of  the  pretension  of  1814,  pronounced 
by  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  in  the  House  of  Commons, — a  con 
demnation  equally  due  to  his  majesty's  proclamation  of  the 
7th  October,  1763,  and  to  the  system*  of  the  Lords  of  Trade. 
"  The  western  frontier  of  North  American  cultivation  is  the 
"  part  of  the  globe  in  which  civilization  is  making  the  most 
"  rapid  and  extensive  conquests  on  the  wilderness.  It  is  the 
"  point  where  the  race  of  man  is  the  most  progressive.  To 

*  N.o.  61. 

f  See  the  "  Christianjlesearches  in  Asia,"  of  the  Rev.  Claudius 
Buchanan. — The  \vritcradITuceTaletter  to  himself,  dated  May  14, 1806, 
from  Watson,  Bishop  of  Llanduff,  which  contains  the  following  passage 
"  Twenty  years  und  more  have  now  elapsed,  since  in  a  sermon  before 
the  House  of  Lords,  I  hinted  to  the  government  the  propriety  of  pay 
ing  regard  to  the  propagation  of  Christianity  in  India;  and.  I  nave 
since  then,  as  fit  occasion  offered,  privately,  but  unsuccessfully,  pressed 
the  matter  on  the  consideration  of  those  in  power." 


MERCANTILE    JEALOUSY.  19 

u  forbid  the  purchase  of  land  from  the  savages,  is  to  arrest  the  SECT.  I. 

"  progress  of  mankind. — More  barbarous  than  the  Norman  ^-^v*^*' 

"  tyrants,  who  afforested  great  tracts  of  arable  land  for  their 

"  sport,  ministers  attempted  to  stipulate  that  a  territory  quite  as 

"  great  as  the  British  islands,  should  be  doomed  to  an  eternal 

"  desert.     They  laboured  to  prevent  millions  of  freemen  and 

"  Christians  from  coming  into  existence.     To  perpetuate  the 

"  English  authority  in  two  provinces,  a  large  part  of  North 

"  America  was  for  ever  to  be  a  wilderness.     The  American 

"  negociators,  by  their  resistance  to  so  insolent  and  extravagant 

"  a  demand,  maintained  the  common  cause  of  civilized  men."* 

4.  Emigration  to  the  colonies  proved,  from  the  outset,  a 
subject  of  alarm  for  the  mother  country.  Her  apprehension 
from  it  was  two-fold;  of  her  own  depopulation,  and  the  trans 
lation  and  decline  of  her  manufactures. 

"  The  barbarism  of  our  ancestors,"  says  the  author  of  the 
European  Settlements  in  America,  "  could  not  comprehend 
"  how  a  nation  could  grow  more  populous  by  sending  out  apart 
"  of  its  people.  We  have  lived  to  see  this  paradox  made  out 
"  by  experience,  but  we  have  not  sufficiently  profited  of  this 
"  experience;  since  we  begin,  (in  1757,)  some  of  us  at  least, 
"  to  think  that  there  is  a  danger  of  dispeopling  ourselves,  by 
"  encouraging  new  colonies,  or  increasing  the  old." 

Precautions  were  taken  against  too  great  an  efflux  from  the 
kingdom,  to  America,  even  in  the  time  of  James  I.  and  were 
renewed  on  several  occasions  in  that  of  his  successor.  The 
circumstance  is  noticed  by  Hume  in  the  following  terms: — 
"  The  Puritans,  restrained  in  England,  shipped  themselves 
"  off  for  America,  and  laid  there  the  foundations  of  a  go- 
"  vernment,  which  possessed  all  the  liberty,  both  civil  and 
"  religious,  of  which  they  found  themselves  deprived  in  their 
u  native  country.  But  their  enemies,  unwilling  that  they 
"  should  any  where  enjoy  ease  and  contentment,  and  dread- 
ic  ing,  perhaps,  the  dangerous  consequences  of  so  disaffected 
"  a  colony,  prevailed  with  the  king  to  issue  a  proclamation, 
"  debarring  these  devotees  access  even  into  those  inhospitable 
"  deserts."f 

In  1637,  a  proclamation  was  issued  by  Charles  I.  "  to  re- 
"  strain  the  disorderly  transporting  of  his  majesty's  subjects  to 
"  the  colonies  without  leave;"  and  in  1638,  another,  "  com- 
"  manding  owners  and  masters  of  vessels,  that  they  do  not 
"  fit  out  any  with  passengers  and  provisions  to  New  England, 

*  Speech  on  the  Treaty  with  America — April  1815. 
f  Chapter  52, 


20  POLITICAL   AN6 

PART  i.  "  without  license  from  the  Commissioners  of  Plantations, 
v^^v-^,  One  incident  of  the  operation  of  this  interdict  has  attracted  the. 

notice   of  all  the  historians,  and  is  thus  strikingly  told  by 

Robertson. 

"  The  number  of  the  emigrants  to  America  drew  the  attention  of 
government,  and  appeared  so  formidable,  that  a  proclamation  was 
issued,  prohibiting  masters  of  ships  from  carrying  passengers  to  New 
England,  without  special  permission.  On  many  occasions  this  injunc 
tion  was  eluded  or  disregarded  Fatally  for  the  king,  it  operated  with 
full  effect  in  one  instance.  Sir  Arthur  Haslerig,  John  Hampden, 
Oliver  Cromwell,  and  some  other  persons,  whose  principles  and  views 
coincided  with  theirs,  impatient  to  enjoy  those  civil  and  religious  liber 
ties,  which  they  struggled  in  vain  to  obtain  in  Great  Britain,  hired  some 
ships  to  carry  them  and  their  attendants  to  New  England.  By  order 
of  council,  an  embargo  was  laid  on  these  when  on  the  point  of  sailing  ; 
and  Charles,  far  from  suspecting  that  the  future  revolutions  in  his 
kingdoms  were  to  be  excited  and  directed  by  persons  in  such  an  hum 
ble  sphere  of  life,  forcibly  detained  the  men  destined  to  overturn  his 
throne,  and  to  tei-minate  his  days  by  a  violent  death."* 

Towards  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  alarm  of 
depopulation,  and  trans- at]  an  tic  manufactures,  from  the  re 
moval  of  British  subjects  to  the  colonies,  had  increased,  and 
become  the  theme  of  much  political  speculation.  Sir_Josiah 
Child  thought  it  necessary  to  investigate  minutely  the  realitj 
6T  The  clanger,  and  devoted  to  the  question  a  consi 
derable  section  of  his  work  on  Trade.  Some  few  of  his 
phrases  will  explain  the  state  of  the  case.  "  Gentlemen  of 
u  no  mean  capacities  are  of  opinion,  that  his  majesty's  plan- 
"  tations  abroad,  have  very  much  prejudiced  this  kingdom  by 
"  draining  us  of  people.**  I  do  not  agree  that  our  people  in 
"  England  are  in  any  considerable  measure  abated,  by  reason 
"  of  our  foreign  plantations.  This,  I  know,  is  a  controverted 
"  point,  and  I  do  believe,  that  where  there  is  one  man  of  my 
"  mind,  there  may  be  a  thousand  of  the  contrary,"  &c.f  Child 
argued  the  question  upon  the  true  principles  of  political  econo 
my,  and  among  other  particular  views  gave  the  following  : — 
"  I  do  acknowledge,  that  the  facility  of  getting  to  the  plan  • 
"  tations,  may  cause  some  more  to  leave  us  than  would  do, 
u-  if  they  had  none  but  foreign  countries  for  refuge:  but  then, 
"  if  it  be  considered,  that  our  plantations  spending  mostly  our 
"  English  manufactures,  and  those  of  all  sorts  almost  irnagi- 
"  nable,  in  egregious  quantities,  and  employing  nearly  Uvo- 
li  thirds  of  all  our  English  shipping,  do  therein  give  a  con- 
"  stant  sustenance  to  it,  may  be  200,000  persons  here  at 
u  home;  then  I  must  needs  conclude,  upon  the  whole  matter, 

*  Fourth  vol.  History  of  America. 
j-  Chapter 


MERCANTILE    JEALOUSY.  *J 

cc  that  we  have  not  the  fewer,  but  the  more  people  in  Eng-  SECT.  I. 
"  land,  by  reason  of  our  English  plantations  in  America."*       ^^^-*** 

Notwithstanding  the  complete  refutation  of  the  error  by 
this  an  ;  o-.he»'  liberal  writers,  lively  alarms  continued  to 
recur.  We  find  the  political  economists  of  England  engaged, 
in  1756,  and  at  later  periods,  before  and  after  « he  American  . 
revolution,  in  warm  controversies  respecting  the  decline  of  the 
British  population,  from  various  causes,  emigration  included.! 
The  govtmiment  acted  uniformly  upon  the  received  prejudice. 
Th<  Lords  of  Trade,  in  the  officiaL-repo.il.jQf  If  70,  which,  I 
have  quoted  above,  refer  to  the  doctrine  also  quoted,  of  the 
governor  oi'  Georgia,  in  the  following  terms: — "And  there  is 
"  on?  objection  suggested  by  governor  Wright,  to  the  extension 
"  of  settlements  in  the  interior  country,  which,  we  submit, 
"  deserves  your  lordship's  particular  attention,  viz.  the  en- 
"  couragement  that  is  thereby  held  ou*  to  the  emigration  of  his 
u  majesty's  subjects;  an  argument  which,  in  the  present  pe- 
"  culiar  situation  of  this  kingdom,  demands  very  serious  con- 
"  sideration,  and  has  for  some  time  past  had  so  great  weight 
"  with  this  Board,  that  it  has  induced  us  to  deny  our  concur- 
"  rence  to  many  proposals  for  grants  of  land,  even  in  those 
"parts  of  the  continent  of  America,  where,  in  other  respects, 
u  we  are  of  opinion,  that  it  consists  with  the  true  policy  of  the 
"  kingdom  to  encourage  settlements." 

On  the  recognition  of  our  independence,  the  panic  respect 
ing  emigration  returned,  in  England,  with  double  violence. 
Nothing  short  of  complete  depopulation,  from  the  tempta 
tions  wbioh  the  seeming  natural  advantages,  or  the  designing 
legislation,  of  the  new  republic  might  offer  to  his  majesty's 
liege  subjects,  was  apprehended  by  the  privy  council  of  the 
home  department.  Lord  Sheffield  set  himself  at  work  to 
medicate  the  imagination  of  his  countrymen,  by  depicting 
this  land  as  one  of  multifarious  wretchedness,  and  in  al 
most  the  last  s;ag(  oi  atrophy.  He  represented  emigration  as 
the  resource  only  of  the  culprit,  and  of  those  who  had 

*  Chapter  10. 

f  To  discourage  it,  the  device  was  early  employed,  which  has  been 
BO  often  resorted  to,  iri  relation  to  the  United  States  The  following  title 
of  a  work.  \vhsc!>  appeared  in  the  mother  country  in  1753,  will  explain 
what  I  mean  :  "  America^  dissected ;  being  a  true  and  full  account  of 
all  the  American  Colonies  T  shewing  thelhtemperance  of  the  climates  ; 
badness  of  i7ione\  ;  danger  from  em-mies;  and  the  danger  to  the  souls 
of  the  poor  people  that  remove  th'TiluM*,  from  the  heresies  that  prevail 
there.  By  a  Rev  Divine  of  the  Church  of  England,  Missionary  to 
America,  and  D.  T).— Published  as  u  caution  to  unsteady  people,  wA# 
7»i  uy  be  tempted  to  leave  their  native  cmmtnj." 


POLITICAL    AND 

PART  I  ma(le  themselves  the  objects  of  contempt.  "America  would 
^  prove  the  bane  of  all  others;"  "  not  above  one  emigrant  infim^ 
to  that  country,  succeeded  so  as  to  settle  a  family;"  "  the  bet 
ter  sort  of  them  were  begging  about  the  streets  of  Philadelphia ; 
Irishmen  went  there  to  become  slaves  to  negroes,"  &c.*  Ex  - 
pedients  more  effectual  than  this  phantasmagoria,  were  adopt 
ed  by  the  government,  particularly  in  J794,  in  the  shape  of 
prohibitory  laws.  We  had  a  remarkable  instance  of  its  feeling 
in  1817,  in  the  act  of  parliament  of  that  year,  by  which  Bri 
tish  and  foreign  vessels  were  allowed  to  carry  passengers  from 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  to  the  United  States,  in  the  propor 
tion  of  one  passenger  only  to  every  five  tons,  whereas  the  British 
vessels  were  permitted  to  convey  them  to  other  countries  in 
the  proportion  of  one  for  every  two  tons. 

The  government  of  England  would  seem,  at  this  time,  1o 
have  relapsed  into  that  particular  "  barbarism  of  our  ances 
tors,"  mentioned  in  the  quotation  from  the  European  Settle 
ments.   The  report  of  die  parliamentary  proceedings  for  Mar, 
1818,  furnishes  the  following  paragraph: — "  In  answer  to  a 
"  question  of  a  member  from  a  manufacturing  town,  respect- 
"  ing  the  increased  progress  of  emigration,  lord  Castlereach 
"  replied,  that  it  was  the  earnest  object  of  government  totermi- 
"  nate  this  most  mischievous  evil,  and  that  they  were  meditatit  g 
"  means  for  this  purpose."    I  have  had  already  occasion     o 
notice  some  of  the  means  which  appear  to  have   been  me 
ditated  by  his  lordship;  but  in  looking  at  the  British  stature 
book,  and  the  repository  of  orders   in  council,  I  find  it  diffi 
cult  to  conjecture  what  means  could  be  contrived  in  the  nature 
of  penal  regulation,  in  addition  to  those  already  provided,  at 
different  eras  in  the  British  history.     The  transportation  of  ' 
machinery  is  still  punishable  with  death.     On  the  6th  of  Feb 
ruary,  1817,  lord  Lauderdale  made  his  lament  in  the  House  of 
Peers,  that  the  law  interfered  to  prevent  a  poor  artisan  from 
leaving  his  country,  and  transferring  his  industry  elsewhere; 
and  that  persons  who  attempted  to  export  machinery  were  sub-  -! 
jected  to  capital  punishment.     We  have  recently  seen  these 
"poor  artisans"  stealing  their  way  at  double  expense,  to  the  si  a 
ports  of  France,  in  order  to  escape  thence  with  impunity,  to    . 
the  only  country  which  holds  out  to  them  the  probability  of  a 
tolerable  lot.     The  statute  book  and  ministry  lag  behind  even 
the  Quarterly  Review  in  illumination  on   this  subject,   if  we 
may  judge  from  this  passage,  of  the  number  of  that  Jour 
nal,  for  April,  1816: — "  It   is  vain    to    imagine,  that  ini- 

*  See  Observations  on  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States,  by  John 
Lord  Sheffield,  1784.— p.  190,  96. 


MERCANTILE   JEALOUSY. 

u  improvements  in  machinery  can,  for  any  length  of  time,  be  SECT.  I. 
"  confined  to  the  country  in  which  they  are  invented;  and  at-  ^^^^^^ 
"  tempts  to  prevent  manufacturers  from  emigrating,  by  penal 
"  statutes,  are  not  only  oppressive,  but  inefficacious." 

The  historians  relate,  that  the  acts  of  Charles  I.  restraining 
emigration,  "  increased  the  murmurs  and  complaints  of  the 
"  people,  and  raised  the  cry  of  double  persecution,  to  be 
"  vexed  at  home,  and  not  suffered  to  seek  peace  abroad"  This 
cry  is  again  heard  in  England,  after  a  lapse  of  nearly  two  cen 
turies,  and  that  jealousy  which*  in  part,  furnished  the  cause  for 
it  at  the  earliest  period,  has  now  a  larger  share  in  its  produc 
tion  with  a  still  greater  certainty  of  disappointment. 

Nothing  remains  for  the  British  government,  but  to  pursue 
the  course  which  Ovid  has  indicated  as  the  reproach  of  the 
Argives  among  the  nations  of  antiquity. 

— Prohibent  discedere  leges 
Paenaque  mors  posita  est  patriam  mutare  volenti. 

5.  The  reduction  of  the  fortress  of  Louisbourg,  in  1 745,  by 
the  colonial  troops, — the  twenty-five  thousand  soldiers  whom 
the  colonies  furnished  and  maintained  in  the  war  of  1755, — 
the  four  hundred  privateers  fitted  out  in  their  ports  during  the 
same  period,  to  cruise  against  French  property, — the  large 
sums  which  they  advanced,  beyond  their  fair  proportion,  to 
the  military  chest, — the  considerable  aids  in  men  and  provi 
sions,  which  they  sent  to  the  West  Indies, — the  important, 
principal  share  which  they  had  in  the  overthrow  of  the  French 
power  in  North  America,  and  in  the  consequent,  unexampled 
glory  and  aggrandizement  of  England, — these  splendid  efforts 
and  services,  of  which  I  propose  to  speak  particularly  here 
after,  extorted  annual  thanks  from  the  British  parliament, 
and  encomiums  from  the  ministry:  But  they  awakened  no 
real  gratitude,  and  won  no  solid  marks  of  favour.  The  old 
jealousy  was  irritated;  and  a  keener  cupidity  excited,  by  such 
supposed  evidences  of  power  and  wealth:  The  design  so  long 
formed,  of  discharging  upon  the  colonies,  a  part  of  the  load  of 
taxation  under  which  Britain  groaned,  and  of  fastening  a 
military  yoke  upon  their  necks,  was  only  confirmed  and  ripen 
ed,  by  their  generous  and  excessive  exertions,  for  the  triumph 
of  the  mother  country  over  her  great  rival.  This  effect  was 
quickly  visible  in  the  stamp-act  of  1764;  and  the  scheme  of 
subjugation,  though  intermitted  for  a  moment,  was  soon  made 
evident  by  the  revival  of  that  act,  and  the  train  of  desperate 
attempts  upon  the  liberties  and  spirit  of  the  colonies,  which 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  has  engraven  on  the  memory 
of  every  American, 


POLITICAL   AND 

PART  i.  rphe  views  and  dispositions  of  the  British  ministry,  from  tin 
v-^^-^  year  1763,  until  the  sword  was  drawn,  and  during  the  struggle, 
belong  more  particularly  to  another  section  of  this  volume. 
They  are,  indeed,  so  well  known,  as  scarcely  to  call  for  illus 
tration  from  history.  It  is  alike  notorious  and  coufesseil, 
that  the  majority  of  the  British  nation  partook  in  them,  and 
finally  consented  to  the  recognition  of  American  independence , 
not  from  any  change  of  feelings,  but  from  momentary  exhaus 
tion  and  discouragement.  As  the  determination  of  »the  colt- 
nies  to  resort  to  arms,  became  apparent,  and  after  the  rupture 
was  complete,  the  jealousy  of  dominion  and  monopoly,  and 
the  dread  of  future  rivalry,  heightened  into  rage,  and  ro 
longer  restrained  by  immediate  interest,  were  vented  in  every 
variety  of  passionate  and  resentful  expression.  u  I  mu>t 
"  maintain,"  said  a  ministerial  leader  in  the.  House  of 
Lords,  in  the  debate  of  the  26th  October,  1775,  on  tie 
king's  speech,  "  that  it  would  have  been  belter  that  America 
"  had  never  been  known,  than  that  a  great  consolidated  em- 
"  pire  should  exist  independent  of  Great  Britain."  Gover 
nor  Johnstone,  and  his  colleagues  of  the  opposition,  cried  shame 
upon  "the  ignoble  jealousies  daily  uttered  in  Parliament 
against  the  Americans." — just  as  an  orator  of  the  House  of 
Commons  found  himself,  in  1812,  compelled  to  exclaim 
and  protest  against  "  the  perpetual  jealousy  of  America."* 
One  of  the  passages  which  I  have  selected  from  the  Edin 
burgh  Review,  to  place  at  the  head  of  this  work,  relates  a 
fact,  which  may  be  said  to  speak  volumes  to  the  same  pur 
port.  It  were  endless,  and  it  is  not  within  my  present  aim, 
to  recount  the  demonstrations  of  this  feeling,  particularly  as 
respects  trade  and  navigation,  given  by  England  since  her 
acknowledgment  of  our  independence.  Nor  do  I  think 
it  necessary  to  prove  further  her  habitual  temper,  by 
quoting  her  conduct  towards  another  of  her  dependencies — 
Ireland — whose  strength,  trade,  and  manufactures  were  so  < 
long  and  cruelly  oppressed  and  crippled,  while  her  domestic 
character  and  history  were  so  grossly  misrepresented  and  tra 
duced,  f 

*  Mr.  Brougham's  Speech  on  the  Commerce  and  Manufactures  of 
Great  Brit:. in. 

f  See  a  victorious  work  recently  published  in  this  country,  and  e-, ti 
tled  Vindicix  llibcmicx*  by  Mathew  Carey,  Esq. — The  sagacious  and 
patriotic  writer  ou^ht  to  pursue  his  well  laid  train  of  detection  The 
subject  is  not  without  attraction  for  Americans  in  genera!  :  and  for 
Irishmen,  and  the  descendants  of  Irishmen,  it  has  the  deepest  interest. 


SECTION  II. 


OF  THE  GENERAL  CHARACTER  AND  MERITS  OF  THE 
COLONISTS. 

1.  I  HAVE  said  that  England,  is  the  particular  mother  coun-  SECT.  II. 
try,  which  might  have  been  expected,  to  be  most  tender  of  the  ^^^^^^^ 
feelings  and  character  of  her  colonies,  out  of  a  due  regard  to 
justice,  gratitude,  and  her  own  interests,  as  well  as  from  the 
sympathies  of  blood,  and  the  dictates  of  an  enlarged  philan 
thropy.  This  is  a  proposition,  from  which  no  candid  man, 
acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  American  continent,  is 
likely  to  dissent,  and  which  can  be  fully  sustained  by  drawing 
upon  the  English  writers.  It  is  my  intention  to  quote  prin 
cipally  their  acknowledgments  in  favour  of  the  origin  and 
character,  and,  as  regards  Great  Britain,  of  the  services  and 
dispositions,  of  the  North  American  colonies.  An  illustration 
of  these  points  by  such  testimony,  will  set  in  a  stronger  light 
the  injustice  and  folly,  of  the  sarcasms  and  contumelies,  which 
have  been  directed  against  the  Americans  from  the  same 
quarter. 

"  There  are  few  states,"  says  the  Quarterly  Review,* 
"  whose  origin  is  on  the  whole  so  respectable  as  the  Ameri- 
"  can — none  whose  history  is  sullied  with  so  few  crimes. 
"  The  Puritans  who  had  fled  into  Holland  to  avoid  intoler- 
u  ance  at  home,  carried  with  them  English  hearts.  They 
"  could  not  bear  to  think  that  their  little  community  should 
u  be  absorbed  and  lost  in  a  foreign  nation:  they  had  forsaken 
u  their  birth  place  and  their  family  graves;  but  they  loved 
cc  their  country,  and  their  mother  tongue,  and  ratherthan  their 
u  children  should  become  subjects  of  another  state,  and  speak 
"  another  language,  they  exposed  themselves  to  all  the  hard- 
"  ships  and  dangers  of  colonizing  in  a  savage  land.  JVb 
"  people  oncarlhmay  so  justly  pride  themselves  on  their  anccs- 
"  tors  as  the  JVeic  Bnglanders." 

Although  it  has  been  repeated  with  great  complacency,  in 

'   4th  Number — Review  of  Holmes'  Annals. 

VOT,  I.— D 


26  CHARACTER   AND   MERITS 

PART  i.  the  work  just  quoted,  that  the  Mam  and  Eve  of  the  co- 
^^v-^'  lonies  came  out  of  Newgate,  yet  it  has  been  admitted,  not 
only  in  England,  but  nearly  throughout  Europe,  that  the  firs! 
settlers,  and  all  the  European  generations  of  British  America, 
were,  in  every  respect,  more  worthy  of  esteem  and  encou 
ragement,  than  those  of  the  other  parts  of  this  continent 
The  Quarterly  Review  itself,*  has  drawn  a  comparison  whicl. 
is  every  way  to  my  purpose. 

«'  The  original  settlers  from  England,  in  North  America,  were  fo ' 
the  most  part,  an  austere,  frugal,  and  industrious  people, — the  hard- 
ships  and  privations  of  their  early  establishments,  were  not  endured 
with  the  inspiring  feelings  of  military  adventurers,  but  borne  with  tho 
patience  of  religious  submission  ;  the  purity  of  their  morals,  tinged 
with  no  small  portion  of  the  fanaticism  which  caused  their  emigration, 
kept  them  from  promiscuous  intercourse  with  the  female  Indians  ;  and 
hence  an  unmixed  race  was  continued,  among  whom  there  was  no  dis 
tinction  of  cast  or  complexion,  to  introduce  a  difference,  or  politics! 
contention.  As  no  great  inequality  of  property,  the  principal  cause  cf 
political  power,  existed,  there  was  no  great  inequality  of  educatio  i 
among  those  born  in  the  country  ;  none  were  so  destitute  of  know 
ledge  as  the  mass  of  the  laborious  in  most  countries  of  Europe." 

"  Comparing  the  population  of  Spanish  with  that  of  British  Ame  - 
rica,  we  shall,  at  every  step,  be  struck  with  the  wonderful  difference  in 
origin,  in  progress,  and  in  present  situation.  The  conquerors  from 
Spain,  instead  of  the  frugal,  laborious,  and  moral  description  of  01  r 
English  settlers,  partook  of  the  ferocity  and  superstition  of  an  earlier 
and  less  enlightened  period.  The  warriors  who  had  exterminated  the 
Mahomedanism  of  Granada,  were  readily  induced  to  propagate  the  r 
own  religion  by  the  sword.  As  few  or  no  women  accompanied  the 
first  settlers  of  South  America,  their  intercourse  with  native  femah  s 
produced  a  race  of  successors  of  a  most  anomalous  character,  and 
these,  in  a  few  generations,  mixing  with  the  slaves  imported  from 
Africa,  still  further  increased  the  different  classes,  who,  in  process  of 
time,  more  by  the  rules  of  society  than  by  the  influence  of  the  laws, 
assumed  a  variety  of  ranks,  according  to  their  greater  or  less  affinity  to 
the  white  race.  The  education  of  the  lower  orders  in  South  America, 
has  been  totally  neglected." 

In  the  list  of  English  authors  who,  although  not  exempt 
from  gross  errors  of  opinion,  display  a  laborious  study  and 
discriminating  knowledge  of  the  formation  and  character 
of  the  settlements  on  this  continent,  I  may  safely  class_Mr. 
Br^oiigham,  distinguished  also  among  the  writers  of  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  and  among  the  leading  statesmen  of  the 
British  Parliament  In  his  excellent  work  on  Colonial  Policy, 
he  has  advanced,  and  successfulT^maintaTin^e37~3Bctrines  con 
cerning  the  thirteen  British  colonies,  some  of  which  deserve 
to  be  set  apart  for  our  history.  I  shall  avail  myself  of  them 
as  the  occasion  offers.  To  begin  with  the  following  passages. 


*  July,  1817,  Article  on  Spain  and  her  Colonies. 


OF    THE    COLONISTS,  Zi 

"  The  first  settlers  of  all  the  colonies,  were  men  of  irreproachable  SECT.  II. 
characters;  many  of  them  fled  from  persecution;  others. on  account  v^^  -^_. 
of  an  honourable  poverty  ;  and  all  of  them  with  their  exj^ctations 
limited  to  the  prospect  of  a  bare  subsistence,  in  freedom   and  peace. 
All  idea  of  wealth  or  pleasure  was  out  of  the  question.     A  set  of  men 
more  conscientious  in  their  doings,  or  simple  in  their  manners,  never 
founded  any  commonwealth.     It  is  indeed  the  peculiar  glory  of  North 
America,  that,  with  a  very  few  exceptions,  its  empire  was  originally  • 
founded  in  charity  and  peace."* 

"  The  new  emigrants  who,  at  various  times,  continued  to  flock  to 
this  extensive  country,  as  it  became  open  and  improved,  were  not  of 
the  same  description  as  the  first  settlers.  They  were  of  a  various  race,  of 
different  ranks,  but  chiefly  needy  men  ;  of  different  sects,  but  of  no 
perceptible  religion  ;  and  of  different  nations,  in  which,  however,  the 
English  greatly  predominated.  Some  of  them  were  persons  of  despe 
rate  fortunes  and  dissolute  characters.  No  combination  of  circum 
stances  can  be  figured,  to  contribute  more  directly  to  the  reformation 
of  the  new  cultivators'  character  and  manners,  than  that  which  was 
found  in  the  situation  of  the  North  American  colonies."! 

"  The  mixture  of  various  population  was,  by  the  influence  of  those 
simple  manners,  which  are  formed  by  an  agricultural  life,  soon  blended 
into  one  nation  of  husbandmen,  whose  character  has  communicated 
itself,  in  a  great  degree,  to  the  most  profligate  of  those,  whom  com 
pulsion  or  despair  from  time  to  time  introduced.  While  the  purity  of 
manners  was  in  this  way  preserved,  that  firmness  of  principles  in  re 
ligion  and  politics  was  maintained,  which  had  so  eminently  contributed 
to  the  establishment  of  colonies.  Sentiments  of  freedom  might  find 
an  asylum  in  America,  when  even  in  Switzerland  it  should  no  longer  be 
lawful  to  think  beyond  the  rules  "j- 

The  "  Account  of  the^ European  Settlements  in  America," 
published  in  London,  in  the  middle  of  tlie^TasTcentury,  and 
ascribed  to  Edmund  Burke,  has  always  possessed  a  great 
and  deserved  authority.  It  holds  the  following  language, 
besides  much  more  in  the  same  strain,  to  which  I  may  here 
after  advert. 

"  The  Puritans  established  themselves  at  a  place  which  they  called 
New  Plymouth.  They  were  but  few  in  number  ;  they  landed  in  a 
bad  season  ;  and  they  were  not  at  all  supported  but  from  their  private 
funds.  The  winter  was  premature,  and  terribly  cold.  The  country 
was  covered  with  wood,  and  afforded  very  little  for  the  refreshment  of 
persons,  sickly  with  such  a  voyage,  or  for  the  sustenance  of  an  infant 
people.  Near  half  of  them  perished  by  the  scurvy,  by  want,  and  the 
severity  of  the  climate  ;  but  they  who  survived,  were  not  dispirited 
with  their  losses,  nor  with  the  hardships  they  were  still  to  endure  ; 
supported  by  the  vigour  which  was  then  the  character  of  the  English 
men,  and  by  the  satisfaction  of  finding  themselves  out  of  the  reach  of 
the  spiritual  arm,  they  reduced  this  savage  country  to  yield  them  a  to 
lerable  livelihood,  and  by  degrees  a  comfortable  subsistence.  This  lit 
tle  establishment  was  made  in  the  year  1631.  It  was  in  the  year  1629, 
that  the  colony  began  to  flourish  in  such  a  manner,  that  they  soon  be 
came  a  considerable  people.  By  the  close  of  the  ensuing  year  they 
had  built  four  towns,  Salem,  Dorchester,  Charlestown,  and  Boston, 
which  has  since  become  the  capital  of  New  England." 

"  Their  exact  and  sober  manners  proved  a  substitute  for  a  proper 
subordination,  and  regular  form  of  government,  which  they  had  for 

*  Book  I.  Section!.  f  Ibid. 


CHARACTER   AND   MERITS 

PART  I.   some  time  wanted,  and  the  want  of  which,  in  such  a  country,  had 
v-^v-^^/  otherwise  been  felt  very  severely.     The  people,  by  their  being  gene 
rally  freeholders,  and  by  their  form  of  government,  acquired  a  very 
free,  bold,  and  republican  spirit. 

"  The  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  in  the  space  of  about  seventy 
jears,  from  a  beginning  of  a  few  hundreds  of  refugees  and  indigent 
men,  has  grown  to  be  a  numerous  and  flourishing  people,  a  people, 
who  from  a  perfect  wilderness,  have  brought  their  territory  to  a  state 
of  great  cultivation,  and  filled  it  with  wealthy  and  populous  towns  ; 
and  who,  in  the  midst  of  a  fierce  and  lawless  race  of  men,  have  pre 
served  themselves  with  unarmed  hands  and  passive  principles,  by  the 
rules  of  moderation  and  justice,  better  than  any  other  people  has  done 
by  policy  and  arms." — Vol.  ii.  p.  196. 

The  "  Political  jLnnals  of  the  United  Colonies,  by 
Geocge^Chalmers,"  are  remartaBIeToT  authentic  and  ample 
details,  and  were  published  in  the  course  of  our  revolution 
ary  war,  under  the  auspices  of  the  British  government.  The 
author  displays  throughout,  the  design  of  discrediting  the 
American  cause,  particularly  the  pretensions  of  New  Eng 
land.  He  is  a  witness  whom  I  shall  often  produce,  and  whose 
evidence,  when  given  in  favour  of  the  colonies,  is  entitled  tc 
especial  weight,  not  only  on  account  of  his  political  aims 
and  prejudices,  but  from  the  strength  of  his  understanding, 
the  nature  of  the  records  to  which  he  had  access,  and  the  dili  • 
gence  of  his  researches.  Of  the  settlement  of  New  England 
he  speaks  thus: — 

"  When  New  Plymouth  consisted  only  of  two  hundred  persons,  of 
all  ages  and  sexes,  it  repulsed  its  enemies,  and  secured  its  borders  with 
a  gallantry  worthy  of  its  parent  country,  because  it  stood  alone  in  the 
desert,  \vithout  the  hope  of  aid." — p.  494. 

"  Though  religious  matters  engaged  much  of  the  attention  of  the 
first  planters  in  Massachusetts,  they  seem  to  have  been  extremely  in 
dustrious  in  temporal  affairs.  All  their  laws  had  a  natural  tendency  to 
exclude  luxury,  and  to  promote  diligence.  When  the  civil  wars  com 
menced,  they  had  already  planted  fifty  towns  and  villages  ;  they  had 
erected  upwards  of  thirty  churches,  and  ministers'  houses  ;  and  they 
had  improved  their  plantations  to  a  high  degree  of  cultivation." 

"  At  the  same  time  that  these  colonists  (the  people  of  New  England) 
very  prudently  preferred  the  blessings  of  peace,  they  were  not  afraid 
of  the  disasters  of  war.  They  easily  repelled  an  unprovoked  attack 
of  the  neighbouring  Indians,  with  a  becoming  bravery.  They  soon 
after  made  a  peace  with  that  people,  which  does  equal  honour  to  their 
justice  and  good  sense  :  and  they  long  enjoyed  all  the  blessings  of  a 
government  conducted  at  once  with  prudence  and  vigour." — p.  89. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  long  train  of  public  disputes  with  the  mother 
country,  New  England  flourished  prodigiously.  She  promoted  suc 
cessfully  the  operations  of  agriculture,  she  augmented  her  manufac 
tures,  and  extended  her  commerce,  and  she  acquired  wealth  and  po 
pulation  in  proportion  to  the  greatness  of  all  these  ;  because  the  rough 
hand  of  oppression  had  not  touched  the  labours  of  the  inhabitants,  or 
interrupted  the  freedom  of  their  pursuits." — p.  416. 

2.  The  composition  of  the  first  settlements,  particularly  that 
*>f  Virginia,  was  early,  and  continues  to  be,  the  theme  of 


OF   THE    COLONISTS.  29 

much  raillery,   and  serious   accusation.      The   coarse  jest,  SECT.  n. 
which  I  have  before  noticed,   has  been  received  and  treated  v^-v^^ 
in  England  as   an  historical  fact.*     Yet,  nothing  is   better 
established,  than  that  the  Puritans  by  whom  New  England 
was  originally  inhabited,  and  successively  replenished,  were, 
not  only  such,  in  their  moral  character  and  domestic  habits,  as. 
they  are  described  in  the  quotations  I  have  made,  but,  for  the 
most  part,  men  of  substance,  and  of  a  respectable  rank  in  life. 
In  the  year  1630,  ten  ships  were  sent  to  Massachusetts  from 
England,  with  several  hundred  passengers,  many  of  whom, 
says  Macpherson,  in  the  second  volume  of  his  Annals  of  Com 
merce,  were  "  persons  of  considerate  /as/iion."  The  leader  of 
the  congregation  of  dissidents,  who  founded  the  new  common 
wealth  at  Plymouth,  in  1620,  is  described,  even  by  the  ene 
mies  of  his  sect,  "  as  a  person  of  excellent  parts,  and  of  a 
most  learned,  polished,  and  modest  spirit." — And  it  is  im 
possible  to  read  the  terse   and  touching  language   used  by 
those  virtuous  exiles,  in  applying  to  their  intolerant  country 
men  for  a  patent,  without  acknowledging,  that  they  must 
have   been    of  a   superior  cast  of  mind  in  all    respects.— 
'  They  were  well  weaned  from  the   delicate  milk  of  their 
Cc  country,  and  inured  to  the  difficulties  of  a  strange  land: 
c  They  were  knit  together  in  a  strict  and  sacred  bond,  by  vir- 
"  tue  of  which  they  held  themselves  bound  to  take  care  of  the 
"  good  of  each  other,  and  of  the  whole:  It  was  not  with  them 
tc  as  with  other  men,  whom  small  things  could  discourage,  or 
"  small  discontents  cause  to  wish  themselves  at  home  again," 
&c.  &c. 

It  is  accurately  stated  by  Ramsay,!  that  the  first  settlers  of 
New  England  in  general,  had  been  educated  at  the  English 
Universities,  and  were  imbued  with  all  the  learning  of  the 
times;  that  not  a  few  of  the  early  emigrant  ministers  possessed 
considerable  erudition;  and  that  numbers  of  clergymen  of  this 
description,  came  over  nearly  together,  in  consequence  of  the 
parliamentary  act  of  uniformity,  passed  in  1662,  when  upwards 
of  two  thousand  Puritan  ministers  were,  in  one  day,  ejected 

*  "  The  Americans  are  the  modern  Jews,  possessing1  all  the  qualities 
of  the  ancient,  under  different  masks.  They  pervade  every  country 
on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  with  the  phrases  of  liberty,  morality,  and 
religion,  they  deceive  the  most  wary,  and  the  most  hypocritical.  Mr. 
Fox  has  had  ample  experience  of  the  tribes  of  Israel  ;  let  him  beware 
of  the  refined  and  complicated  cunning  of  that  race,  -whose  Adam  and 
Eve  emigrated  from  Newgate." — Critical  Review,  third  series,  vol.  iii. 

&, 

"  The  Americans  are_a  race  of  convicts,  and  ought  to  be  thankful 
for  any  thing  we  allow  them,  short  of  hanging."— Dr.  Johnson — ap. 
Boswell,  vol.  ii- 

t  Colon! aTCTvil  History,  p.  235. 


30  CHARACTER   AND    MERITS 

PART  i.  from  their  livings  in  England.*  The  Massachusetts  planta- 
v>-^^v^^-^  tion  may  be  considered  as  the  parent  of  all  the  other  settle 
ments  in  New  England.  There  was  no  emigration  from  the 
mother  country  to  any  part  of  the  continent  northward  of 
Maryland,  except  to  Massachusetts,  for  more  than  fifty  years 
from  the  birth  of  this  colony.f 

Among  the  one  hundred  and  five  adventurers  who  sailed 
from  England  with  Captain  Newport,  in  1607,  and  founded 
Jamestown,  in  Virginia,  several  officers  of  high  family  con 
nexions,  and  of  much  personal  distinction,  are  designated 
by  the  historians.  The  first  accession  of  females,  to  the 
Virginia  settlement,  may  be  cited  by  the  Virginian  of  the 
present  day,  without  a  blush  for  his  lineage.  "  In  order," 
says  Chalmers,  "  to  settle  the  minds  of  the  colonists,  and  to 
induce  them  to  make  Virginia  their  place  of  residence  and 
continuance,  it  was  proposed  to  send  thither  one  hundred 
maids,  as  wives  for  them:  ninety  girls,  '  young  and  uncor- 
rupt,'  were  transported  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1620;  and 
sixty  more,  'handsome  and  recommended  for  virtuous  demean 
our,'  in  the  subsequent  year.f"  Robertson  is  still  more  particu 
lar  in  noticing  the  respectability  of  these  females.  The  descent 
from  mothers  of  this  character,  is  at  least  as  reputable  as  from 
the  "maids  of  honour"  of  the  court  of  Charles  II. — and  the  fa 
thers  who  reclaimed  the  wilderness  and  built  up  a  free  slate, 
transmitted  a  blood  which  might  be  deemed  as  pure  and  noble, 
as  any  that  runs  in  the  veins  of  the  progeny  of  the  debauched 
and  venal  parasites  of  that  monarch.  We  are  told  by  Robert 
son^  that,  in  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth,  many  adherents 
to  the  royal  party,  and  among  these,  some  gentlemen  of  good 

*  Hume  notices  tliis  transaction,  in  his  History,  in  the  following1  terms: 
"  However  odious  Vune  and  Lambert  were  to  the  Presbyterians,  that 
party  had  no  leisure  to  rejoice  at  their  condemnation.  The  fatal  St. 
Bartholomew  approached,  the  day,  when  the  clergy  were  obliged  by 
the  late  law,  either  to  relinquish  their  livings,  or  to  sign  the  articles  re 
quired  of  them,  declaring  their  assent  to  every  thing  contained  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  &c.  A  combination  had  been  entered  into 
by  the  more  zealous  of  the  Presbyterian  ecclesiastics,  to  refuse  the 
subscription;  in  hopes  that  the  bishops  would  not  dare  at  once  to  expel 
so  great  a  number  of  the  most  popular  preachers.  The  king,  himself, 
by  his  irresolute  conduct,  contributed,  either  from  design  or  accident, 
to  increase  this  opinion.  Above  all,  the  terms  of  subscription  had  been 
made  very  strict  and  rigid,  on  purpose  to  disgust  all  the  zealous  and 
scrupulous  among  the  Presbyterians,  and  deprive  them  of  their  livings 
About  two  thousand  of  the  clergy  in  one  day  relinquished  their  cures ; 
und,  to  the  great  astonishment  of  the  court,  sacrificed  their  interest  to  thev 
-digivus  tenets." — Chapter  63. 

f  Hutchinson's  History  of  Massachusetts — Preface. 

t  Page  46. 

§  History  of  America,  vol.  iv. 


OP   THE    COLONISTS.  31 

families,  in  order  to  avoid  danger  and  oppression,  to  which  they  SECT.  IT. 
were  exposed  in  England,  or  in  hopes  of  repairing  their  ruined  ^^-v-^ 
fortunes,  resorted  to  Virginia.  Lord  Clarendon  bears  testi 
mony  to  this  fact  in  his  History  of  the  Rebellion.  "  Out  of 
confidence  in  Sir  William  Berkeley,  the  governor  of  Virginia, 
who  had  industriously  invited  many  gentlemen  and  others 
thither,  as  to  a  place  of  security,  which  he  could  defend  against 
any  attempt,  and  where  they  might  live  plentifully,  many 
persons  of  condition,  and  good  officers  in  the  war,  had  trans 
ported  themselves  with  all  the  estate  they  had  been  able  to 
preserve."*  Chalmers  may  be  quoted  to  a  similar  purport, 
and  to  the  general  character  of  the  early  Virginians.  "The 
"  instructions  of  Charles  I.  gave  large  tracts  of  land  to  indi- 
"  viduals,  men  of  consideration  and  wealth,  who  roused  by 
"  religion,  or  ambition,  or  caprice,  removed  to  Virginia,  and 
"  the  population  of  that  colony  had  increased  to  about  twenty 
"  thousand  souls  at  the  commencement  of  the  civil  wars." — 
p.  125. 

"  The  Virginians  being  animated  by  timely  supplies  from 
"  England,  displayed  a  vigor  in  design  and  action,  which  men, 
"  when  left  to  themselves  amid  dangers,  never  fail  to  exert. 
"  They  rejected  the  timid  counsels  of  those,  who  advised  them 
u  to  abandon  their  settlements,  and  retire  to  the  eastern  shore 
"  of  the  Chesapeake,  They  not  only  resisted  the  attacks  of 
"  their  implacable  enemies,  but,  with  the  accustomed  bravery 
u  of  Englishmen,  pursued  them  into  their  fastnesses.  And 
cc  now,  for  the  first  time,  the  aborigines  receded  from  the 
"  rivers,  and  from  the  plantations  around;  leaving  their  op- 
ic  ponents  in  possession  of  the  territories  that  their  swords  had 
«  won."— p.  63. 

If  we  turn  to  Maryland,  we  may  appeal  to  the  same  author 
with  equal  confidence. 

"  The  first  emigration  to  Maryland,  consisting1  of  about  two  hundred 
gentlemen  of  considerable  fortune  and  rank,  with  their  adherents,  who 
were  composed  chiefly  of  Roman  Catholics,  sailed  from  England  in 
November,  1632." 

"  The  Roman  Catholics,  unhappy  in  their  native  land,  and  desirous 
of  a  peaceful  asylum  in  Maryland,  emigrated  in  considerable  numbers. 
Lord  Baltimore  laid  the  foundation  of  his  province  upon-the  broad 
basis  of  security  to  property,  and  of  freedom  in  religion  ;  granting  in 
absolute  fee  fifty  acres  of  land  to  every  emigrant;  establishing  Chris 
tianity  agreeably  to  the  old  common  law,  of  which  it  is  a  part,  without 
allowing  pre-eminence  to  any  particular  sect." — p.  208. 

"  In  order  chiefly  to  procure  the  assent  of  the  freemen  of  Maryland 
to  a  body  of  laws  which  the  proprietary  had  transmitted,  Calvert,  the 

*  Vol.  iii.   p.  706, 


32  CHARACTER   AND   MERITS 

PART  I.    governor,  called  a  new  assembly  in  1637-8.     But,  rejecting  these  with 
^*^^^s  a  becoming1  spirit,  they  prepared  a  collection  of  regulations,  which  de 
monstrate  equally  their  good  sense  and  the  state   of  their  affairs." — 
p.  211. 

"  The  assembly  of  Maryland  endeavoured,  with  a  laudable  anxiety 
to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  church  ;  and,  though  composed  chiefl) 
of  Roman  Catholics,  it  adopted  that  measure,  which  could  alone  prove 
absolutely  successful.      The   act  which    it  passed,  '  concerning  reli 
gion,'  recited,  'that  the  enforcement   of  the  conscience  had  been  of 
dangerous  consequence  in  those  countries  wherein  it  had  been  prac 
tised.'     And  it  enacted,  that  no  persons  believing-  in  Jesus  Christ  shall  b". 
molested  in  respect  of  their  religion,  or  in  the  free  exercise  thereof  \  or  b<* 
compelled  to  the  belief  or  exercise  of  any  other  religion,  against  their 
consent  ;  so  that  they  be  not  unfaithful  to  the  proprietary,  or  conspire 
not  against  the  civil  government :  that  persons  molesting  any  other  i'i 
respect  of  his  religious  tenets,  shall  pay  treble  damages  to  the  part/ 
aggrieved,  and   twenty  shillings  to  the   proprietary:  That  those  n- 
proaching  any  ivith  opprobrious  names  of  religious  distinction)  shall  forfe  t 
ten  shillings  to  the  persons  injured." — p.  218. 

Maryland  derived  apart  of  her  population  from  the  other 
provinces.  The  Puritans  persecuted  by  the  established  church 
in  Virginia,  the  Quakers  oppressed  by  the  synod  of  Massr- 
chusetts,  and  the  Dutch  expelled  from  Delaware,  sought  and 
found  a  generous  protection,  and  entire  freedom  of  religiois 
worship, in  the  Roman  Catholic  colony.  New  York  was  first  se> 
tled  by  the  Dutch,  at  the  time  when  they  had  just  shaken  cff 
the  yoke  of  Spain;  when  they  displayed  national  energies  ar.d 
virtues  of  the  highest  order,  and  pursued  a  more  liberal  ard 
enlightened  policy,  with  respect  to  civil  liberty,  religion,  ar.d 
trade,  than  any  other  people  of  Europe.  The  emigrants  from 
Holland  to  North  America,  brought  with  them,  the  charac 
teristic  industry  and  sobriety, the  tolerant  spirit  and  sound  eco 
nomics,  of  the  commercial  republic.  The  original  population  of 
New  Jersey  was  composed  of  Swedes  and  Hollanders,  and  of 
emigrants  from  the  northern  colonies:  That  of  Pennsylvania 
needs  not  be  celebrated  by  a  reference  to  the  parent  state.  The 
commonwealth,  which  the  wise  and  humane  associates  of 
Penn,  the  laborious,  frugal,  and  orderly  Germans,  and  the 
intelligent,  active,  and  generous  Irish,  formed,  and  brought  to 
beauty  and  solidity,  in  so  short  a  time,  is  a  monument,  elo 
quent  enough  in  itself;  a  creation,  upon  which  no  European 
writer  has  looked  steadily,  without  bursting  into  expressions 
of  admiration.  Even  the  austere  loyalty  of  Chalmers,  is 
relaxed  by  it,  and  the  following  emphatic  testimony  extorted 
from  his  convictions. 

"  As  a  supplement  to  the  frame  of  government  for  Pennsylvui.ia, 
there  was  published  a  body  of  '  laws  agreed  upon  in  England  by 
the  Adventurers,'  which  was  intended  as  a  great  charter.  And  it  does 
great  honour  to  their  wisdom  as  statesmen,  to  their  morals  as  men, 
Jo  their  spirit  as  colonists.  A  plantation  reared  on  such  a  seed-plot, 


OF   THE    COLONISTS.  oo 

could  not  fail  to  grow  up  with  rapidity,  to  advance  fast  to  maturity,  to  SECT  II. 
attract  the  notice  of  the  world." — p.  643.  \^r^^^ 

"The  numerous  laws,  which  were  enacted  at  the  first  settlement  of 
Pennsylvania,  which  do  so  much  honour  to  its  good  sense,  display  the 
principles  of  the  people  ;  these  legislative  regulations  kept  them  alive 
long  after  the  original  spirit  began  to  droop  and  expire.  Had  Penn 
sylvania  been  less  blessed  by  nature,  she  must  have  become  flourishing 
and  great,  because  it  wasaprinciple  of  her  great  charter,  'that  children- 
should  be  taught  some  useful  trade,  to  the  end  that  none  may  be  idle, 
but  the  poor  may  work  to  live,  and  the  rich,  if  they  become  poor,  may 
not  want.'  That  country  must  become  commercial,  which  compels 
factors,  wronging  their  employers,  to  make  satisfaction,  and  one-third 
over;  which  subjects  not  only  the  goods  but  the  lands  of  the  debtor, 
to  the  payment  of  debts ;  because  it  is  the  credit  given  by  all  to  all,  that 
forms  the  essence  of  traffic.  We  ought  naturally  to  expect  great  in 
ternal  order  when  a  fundamental  law  declares,  that  every  thing  '  which 
excites  the  people  to  rudeness,  cruelty,  and  irreligion,  shall  be  dis 
couraged  and  severely  punished.'  And  religious  controversy  could  not 
disturb  her  repose,  when  none,  acknowledging  one  God,"  and  living 
peaceably  in  society,  could  be  molested  for  his  opinions  or  his  practice, 
or  compelled  to  frequent  and  maintain  any  ministry  whatsoever.  To 
the  regulations  which  were  thus  established  as  fundamentals,  must 
chiefly  be  attributed  the  rapid  improvement  of  this  colony,  the  spirit 
of  diligence,  order  and  economy,  for  which  the  Pennsylvanians  have 
been  at  all  times  so  celebrated." — p.  643. 

Swedes  and  Fins,  a  simple  and  virtuous  race  of  men, 
opened  the  soil  of  Delaware,  and  were  joined  by  the  Dutch, 
and  by  emigrants  of  different  nations,  from  the  neighbouring 
provinces.  New  England,  Virginia,  and  Pennsylvania,  gave 
the  first  inhabitants  to  the  Carolinas.  In  consequence  of  the 
revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantz,  a  multitude  of  French  Pro 
testants  of  the  most  respectable  families,  established  them 
selves  in  South  Carolina.  These  were  followed,  at  different  in 
tervals,  by  numbers  of  their  own  countrymen,  and  of  Germans 
and  Swiss,  professing  the  same  religious  tenets.  The  character 
of  the  French  settlers  has  been  recently  pourtrayed  by  a  young 
American,  in  a  language  which  I  am  proud  to  quote,  as  a 
specimen  of  what  is  produced  in  those  literary  societies, 
whose  existence  even,  the  European  critics  would  not,  in  all 
likelihood,  condescend  to  notice. 

"  History  derives  more  than  half  its  value  from  the  moral  parallels 
and  contrasts,  which  it  suggests.  It  is  a  singular  coincidence  of  this 
sort,  that  between  the  years  1682  and  1688,  at  the  very  time  that  Wil 
liam  Penn,  the  gentlest  and  purest  of  all  rulers,  was  rendering  his 
name  for  ever  illustrious,  by  establishing,  in  America,  a  refuge  for  the 
wretched  and  oppressed  of  the  whole  earth  ;  Louis  XIV.,  one  of  the 
most  gorgeous  and  heartless  of  sovereigns,  was  delivering  up  three 
hundred  thousand  families  of  his  Protestant  subjects  to  the  atrocious 
tyranny  of  the  fanatical  Le  Tellier,  and  the  sanguinary  Louvois  ;  and 
by  his  ambition  of  universal  empire  abroad,  and  his  bigotry  and  osten 
tation  at  home,  was  preparing  for  France  those  calamities  which  h;ive 
since  fallen  upon  her.  The  Huguenots  were  the  most  moral,  industri 
ous,  and  intelligent  part  of  the  French  population,  and  when  they  were 

VOL.  I.—E 


34  CHARACTER    AND    MERITS 

PART  1.  expelled  from  their  native  country,  they  enriched  all  Europe  with  the 
._^-_  ~^.  commerce  and  arts  of  France.  Many  of  the  more  enterprising  of  them, 
finding  themselves  shut  out,  by  the  narrow  policy  of  the  French  court 
from  Louisiana,  where  they  had  proposed  to  found  a  colony,  turned 
their  course  to  New  York  and  to  South  Carolina,  where  they  soon 
melted  into  the  mass  of  the  population. 

"  Certainlv,  we  cannot  wish  to  see  perpetuated  among  us  the  old 
Asiatic  and  European  notions  of  indelible  hereditary  excellence  ;  and 
equally  wild  are  those  theories  -tf  a  fantastical  philosophy,  which  would 
resolve  all  the  intellectual  and  moral  qualities  of  man  into  accidental 
physical  causes.  But  surely  there  is  a  point  at  which  good  feeling 
and  sound  philosophy  can  meet,  and  agree  in  ascribing  the  best  parts 
of  our  character  to  the  moral  influence  of  a  virtuous  and  intelligent 
ancestry. 

*'  Considering  the  subject  in  this  light,  we  may  well  look  back,  with 
pride,  to  our  Huguenot  forefathers.  The  modern  historians  of  France 
have  rarely  done  them  full  justice.  The  decline  which  the  loss  of  their 
industry  and  arts  caused  in  the  commerce  of  their  own  country,  and 
the  sudden  increase  of  wealth  and  power  which  England  and  Holland 
derived  from  them,  are  sufficient  proofs  that  their  general  character 
was  such  as  I  have  described.  Nor  are  they  to  be  regarded  solely  as 
prosperous  merchants,  and  laborious  and  frugal  artisans. 

"The  French  character  never  appeared  with  more  true  lustre  than 
it  did  in  the  elder  protestants.  Without  stopping  to  expatiate  in  the 
praise  of  their  divines  and  scholars,  Calvin,  Beza,  Salmasius,  and  the 
younger  Scaliger;  Claude,  Jurieu,  Amylraut,  and  Saurin,  nor  on  those 
of  Sully,  the  brave,  the  wise,  the  incorruptible,  the  patriotic ;  I  shall 
only  observe,  ihat  though  his  own  countrymen  have  been  negligent  of 
his  glory,  and  choose  to  rest  the  fame  of  French  chivalry  on  their  Du- 
nois,  their  Bayard,  their  Du  Guescelin  and  their  Crillon,  we  may  search 
their  history  in  vain  for  a  parallel  to  that  beautiful  union  of  the  intrepid 
soldier  with  the  profound  scholar,  of  the  adroit  politician  with  the  man 
of  unbending  principle,  of  the  rigid  moralist  and  the  accomplished  gen 
tleman,  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  life  of  the  Huguenot  chief,  Mornai 
Du  Plessis. 

"Many  of  those  who  emigrated  to  this  country,  after  the  revocation 
of  the  edict  of  Nantes,  were  the  companions,  the  sons,  or  the  disciples 
of  these  men,  and  they  brought  hither  a  most  valuable  accession  of  in 
telligence,  knowledge,  and  enterprise."* 

A  considerable  number  of  Palatines  rivalling  the  Dutch  in 
habits  of  industry  and  order,«settled  in  North  Carolina,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  memorable  ravages 
of  war  committed  at  that  period  in  the  countries  of  the 
Rhine,  drove  into  England  seven  thousand  of  the  ruined  inha 
bitants.  Palatines  and  Suabians.  Three  thousand  of  them 
were  transported  to  New  York,  and  a  part  of  these  found  their 
way  into  the  other  provinces.  It  seems  incredible,  yet  is  matter 
of  parliamentary  record,  that  the  expense  incurred  for  their 
transportation, — not  more  beneficial  to  them,  than  to  the  co 
lonies  which  received  them — drew  complaints  from  the  British 
House  of  Commons.  A  body  styling  itself  the  citadel  ot 

*  An  Anniversary  Discourse  delivered  before  the  New  York  Histori 
cal  Society,  December  7,  1818,  by  Gillian  C.  Verplank,  Esq. 


OF   THE    COLONISTS.  35 

Protestantism,  and  the  refuge  of  the  victims  of  Catholic  bigot-  SECT.  II. 
ry,  could,  nevertheless,  in  a  formal  representation  to  Queen  v-^-v-^" 
Anne,  discourse  querimoniousty  of  "  the  squandering  away  great 
"  sums  upon  the  Palatines,  a  useless  people,  a  mixture  of  all 
"  religions,  and  dangerous  to  the  constitution," — with  the  de 
claration  besides,  that  u  it  held  those  who  advised  the  bringing 
"  them  over  to  England,  as  enemies  to  the  queen  and  king- 
"  dom."  How  different  the  conduct  of  the  unpretending 
Quakers  of  Pennsylvania,  by  whom  the  portion  of  the  wretch 
ed  exiles  that  took  shelter  there,  was — not  defamed  or  stinted 
but,  according  to  an  English  writer,  most  kindly  entertained 
and  assisted!* 

The  poverty  and  humble  condition  of  a  part  of  the  emigrants 
to  the  middle  and  southern  provinces,  constitute  the  heaviest 
reproach  to  which  they  are  liable,  if  we  except,  indeed,  the  cir 
cumstance, — notable  in  the  case  of  Georgia  particularly — of  so 
many  of  them  being  Scotchmen;  which  forms,  no  doubt,  a 
just  subject  of  ridicule  for  the  wits  of  Edinburgh.  The  gene 
ral  estimation  in  which  our  emigrant  ancestors  should  be  held, 
is  proclaimed  in  the  rapid  growth,  strength,  order,  and  felicity 
of  the  communities,  which  they  added  to  the  British  empire. 
The  mighty  difficulties  which  they  vanquished — the  conquests 
which  they  made  over  nature,  and  over  a  savage  enemy  greatly 
exceeding  them  in  numbers  and  the  means  of  annoyancef — 
the  freedom  and  liberality  of  their  institutions,  and  the  inte 
grity  in  which  those  institutions  were  preserved — the  solicitude 
and  success  with  which  they  laboured  to  render  universal 
among  them  an  acquaintance  with  the  rudiments  of  learning 
— all  these  points  which  I  propose  to  enlarge  upon  in  the 
subsequent  pages — demonstrate  the  noblest  qualities ;  enter- 
prize,  industry,  perseverance,  valour,  sagacity,  humane,  and 
broad  views,  setting  them  plainly  above  the  mass  of  their  co- 
temporaries  in  Europe. 

The  white  population  of  Georgia  consisted  of  only  fifty 
thousand  souls  in  the  year  1775,  and  but  forty-five  years  had 
then  elapsed  since  the  foundation  of  the  colony:  yet,  though  so 
weak,  and  though  vulnerable  and  sure  of  being  assailed,  on 
every  side,  she  joined,  in  that  year,  the  confederacy  against  the 
mother  country.  The  character  of  her  founder,  general  Ogle- 
thorpe, — who  lived  to  see  her  independence  and  sovereignty 
acknowledged — was  such  as  to  have  hallowed  that  of  the 
exiles  who  seconded  his  plans  of  civil  government,  arid  fought 

*  Macpherson's  Annals  of  Commerce,  vol.  iii.  p.  6 
t  See  Note  A. 


30  CHARACTER    AND    MERITS 

PART  I.  under  his  banners  against  the  Indians  and  Spaniards.  The 
^~v>w  Oglethorpes,  the  Robinsons,  the  Penns,  the  Roger  Williams', 
the  Smiths,  the  Culverts,  may  be  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
worthies  to  whom  Adam  Smith  alludes,  in  the  following  pas 
sage  of  the  fourth  book  of  his  Wealth  of  Nations.  u  It  was 
"  not  the  wisdom  and  policy,  but  the  disorder  and  injustice  of 
"  the  European  governments,  which  peopled  and  cultivated 
u  America.  In  what  way,  then,  has  the  policy  of  Europe 
"  contributed  either  to  the  first  establishment,  or  to  the  pre- 
"  sent  grandeur  of  the  colonies  of  America?  In  one  ivay,  and 
"  in  one  way  only,  it  has  contributed  a  good  deal.  Magna 
"  virum  mater!  It  bred  and  formed  the  men  who  were  capa- 
u  ble  of  atchieving  such  great  actions,  and  of  laying  the  founda- 
"  tion  of  so  great  an  empire;  and  there  is  no  other  quarter  of  the 
"  world,  of  which  the  policy  is  capable  of  forming,  or  ever  has 
"  actually  and  in  fact,  formed,  such  men.  The  colonies  owe 
"  to  Europe  the  education  and  great  views  of  their  active  and 
u  enterprising  founders,  and  some  of  the  greatest  and  most 
t:  important  of  them,  so  far  as  concerns  their  internal  govern- 
"  ment,  owe  to  it  scarce  any  thing  else." 

3.  The  occasional  exportation  to  the  plantations,  of  those 
whom  the  government  of  England  chose  to  denominate  con 
victs,  vagrants,  and  -'  dissolute  persons,"  is  the  most  plausible 
ground  for  the  language  of  contempt  and  derision,  which  has 
been  so  commonly  indulged,  with  respect  to  the  original  stock 
of  these  States.  The  fact  taken  in  the  broad  and  unqualified 
manner  in  which  it  is  usually  announced,  would  exalt  but 
little  the  generosity  and  justice  of  the  mother  country,  if  the 
character  of  the  first  and  voluntary  settlers  be  admitted  to  have 
been  such  as  it  appears  in  the  foregoing  pages,  upon  the  testi 
mony  of  the  British  writers.  An  impartial  investigation  of  this 
subject  gives  it,  however,  a  different  complexion  from  that 
which  it  commonly  wears.* 

Franklin  calculated  in  1 751, f  that  there  were  then  one  mil 
lion  or  upwards  of  English  souls  in  North  America,  and  that 
scarce  eighty  thousand  had  been  brought  over  sea.  Among  this 
number  of  emigrants,  not  one-eighth  was  of  the  description  men 
tioned  above,  and  it  is  certain,  from  the  uniform  acknowledg 
ment  of  history,  that  those  who  were,  did  not  adulterate,  but 
imbibed,  themselves,  in  a  great  degree,  the  character  of  their 
predecessors.  Numbers  became,  in  process  of  time,  laborious 
and  orderly  citizens;  anxious  and  exemplary  fathers  of  families. 

*  Discourse  on  Trade,  chap.  x.  f  Essay  on  Population, 


OF    THE    COLONISTS.  37 

I  have  quoted  in  p.  21  some  remarks  made  by  Mr.  Brougham  SECT.  n. 

in  his  "  Colonial  Policy,"  which  bear  upon  the  true  theory  of  ^^^s-*^/ 

this  point;  and  I  may  add  here  from  the  same  work,  "  that  if 

"  the  convicts  in  the  colony  of  New  Holland,  though  sur- 

"  rounded  on  the  voyage,  and  in  the  settlement,  by  the  com- 

"  panions  of  their  iniquities,  have,  in  a  great  degree,  been  re- 

"  claimed,  by  the  mere  change  of  scene,  what  might  not  be 

"  expected  from  such  a  change  as  that  which  the  transported 

"  persons  experienced  on  arriving  in  America?"* 

It  is  to  be  noted,  that  the  real  convicts  were  received  by 
the  colonists  not  as  companions,  but  as  servants;  and  if  the 
circumstance  of  their  comparative  paucity  did  not  render  ab 
surd  a  general  reproach  upon  our  descent,  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive  why  any  generation  in  Great  Britain  should  not  be 
stigmatized  in  its  origin,  on  account  of  the  much  more  consi 
derable  proportion  of  "  dangerous  rogues,"  who  remained  at 
home.  Chalmers  tells  us,  that  "  it  is  to  James  I.  that  the 
"  British  nation  and  the  colonists  owe  the  policy  whether  sa- 
"  lutary  or  baneful,  of  sending  convicts  to  the  plantations."— 
The  excuse  which  this  writer  offers  for  the  British  nation 
would  seem  fitted  to  operate  as  efficaciously  in  favour  of  the 
colonies: — u  The  good  sense  of  those  days  justly  considered 
"  that  their  labour  would  be  more  beneficial  in  an  infant  set- 
"  tlement,  which  had  an  immense  wilderness  to  cultivate,  than 
"  their  vices  could  possibly  be  pernicious."! 

But  there  are  other  considerations,  of  a  nature,  to  render  a 
Briton  cautious,  how  he  attempts  to  handle  this  topic  offensive 
ly.  When  we  find  the  term  cowwcte  used,  in  reference  to  the 
persons  transported,  during  three-fourths  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  we  are  not  to  understand  it  in  the  opprobious  sense 
in  which  it  is  generally  received,  and  was  tyrannically  meant 
to  be  employed.  The  several  parties  who  alternately  gained 
the  ascendency  in  the  furious  struggles  of  that  era,  in  Eng 
land,  oppressed  and  exiled,  under  this  appellation,  the  objects 
of  their  political  resentment,  or  their  religious  intolerance. 
Chalmers  even,  confesses,  that  the  only  law  which,  in  the 
time  of  James  1.  justified  the  infliction  of  expulsion, 'unknown 
to  the  common  law,  was  the  statute  of  Elizabeth,  which  en 
acted  that  "  dangerous  rogues  might  be  banished  out  of  the 
"  realms;"  and  he  adds  that  it  is  probable  the  obnoxious  men 
were  transported  agreeably  to  the  genius  of  the  administration 
of  the  time — by  prerogative. 

The  extent  of  the  guilty  abuse  and  cruel  hardship  to  which 

*  Book  I.  Sect.  I.  f  Chap.  iii.  Political  Annals. 


38  CHARACTER   AND    MER11S 

PART  i.  this  assumption  of  power  led,  can  be  readily  imagined,  from 
^^^^^  the  facility  of  sweeping  off  the  obnoxious  and  distressed,  und  ;r 
the  denomination  of  vagrants,  or  "  dangerous  rogues."  It  may 
be  worth  while,  in  order  to  illustrate  the  point  further,  to  refor 
to  Sir  Josiah  Child's  account  of  the  peopling  of  the  planta 
tions,  which,  from  its  early  date,  carries  with  it  a  particular  au 
thority,  and  which,  at  the  same  time,  furnishes  a  curious  picture 
of  the  miserable  state  of  things  in  England  at  the  epoch  in 
question.  He  relates,  in  the  first  instance,*  that  Virginia  ai  d 
Barbadoes  were  partly  settled  by  a  loose,  vagrant  people,  wl  o 
must,  if  there  had  been  no  English  plantations,  have  starved  at 
home,  or  "  else  have  sold  themselves  for  soldiers,  to  be  knocked 
"  on  the  head,  or  starved  in  the  quarrels  of  England's  neigh- 
"  bours,  as  many  thousands  of  brave  Englishmen  were,  in  the 
"  Low  Countries,  as  also  in  the  wars  of  Germany,  Franc. 3, 
a  and  Sweden;  or  else,  if  they  could  by  begging  or  otherwise 
"  arrive  to  the  stock  of  two' shillings  and  six  pence,  to  waft 
"  them  over  to  Holland,  become  servants,  where  none  are 
"  refused."  Then  come  the  following  passages: — 

"  But  the  principal  growth  and  increase  of  the  aforesaid  plantations 
of  Virginia  and  Barbadoes  happened  in,  or  immediately  after,  our  late 
civil  wars,  when  the  worsted  party,  by  the  fate  of  war,  being1  deprived 
of  their  estates,  and  having  some  of  them  never  been  bred  to  labou  •, 
and  others  made  unfit  for  it,  by  the  lazy  habit  of  a  soldier's  life  ;  theie 
wanting  means  to  maintain  them  all  abroad  witli  his  majesty,  many  of 
them  betook  themselves  to  the  aforesaid  plantations,  and  great  num 
bers  of  Scots  soldiers,  of  his  majesty's  army,  after  Worcester  tight, 
were,  by  the  then  prevailing1  powers,  voluntarily  sent  thither." 

"  Another  great  swarm,  or  accession  of  new  inhabitants  to  the  afore 
said  plantations,  as  also  to  New  England,  Jamaica,  and  all  others  his 
majesty's  plantations  in  the  West  Indies,  ensued  upon  his  majesty's 
restoration,  when  the  former  prevailing  party  being,  by  a  divine  hand 
of  Providence,  brought  under,  the  army  disbanded,  many  officers  dis 
placed,  and  all  the  new  purchasers  of  public  titles,  dispossessed  of  their 
pretended  lands,  estates,  &c.  many  became  impoverished,  and  destitute 
of  employment ;  and,  therefore,  such  as  could  find  no  way  of  living  at 
home,  and  some  who  feared  there-establishment  of  the  ecclesiastical 
laws,  under  which  they  could  not  live,  were  forced  to  transport  them 
selves,  or  sell  themselves  fur  a  few  years,  to  be  transported  by  others  to  the 
foreign  English  plantations.**And  some  were  of  those  people  called 
Quakers,  banished  for  meeting  on  pretence  of  religious  worship." 

In  noticing  the  prevalence  of  the  practice  of  transportation, 
after  the  Restoration,  Chalmers  remarks,  that  it  was  probably 
upon  the  authority  of  the  statute  which  empowered  the  king 
to  send  Quakers  to  the  colonies. f  This  is  the  statute  13,  14, 
ch.  ii.  c.  1,  "  for  preventing  the  dangers  that  may  arise  by 
"  certain  persons  called  Quakers,  and  others  refusing  to  takt 


*  Discourse  on  Trade,  chap.  x.  +  Chap.  xv.  Annals. 


OF    THE    COLONISTS. 


39 


u  the  lawful  oaths."  It  enacted,  that  it  should  be  lawful  for  SECT.  II. 
his  majesty,  to  cause  such  refractory  persons  to  be  transported  v-^^-^*/ 
beyond  the  seas.  We  are  informed  by  Hume,*  that  Cromwell 
caused  the  royalists  who  engaged  in  conspiracies  against  his 
government,  to  he  sold  for  slaves  and  transported.  On  the 
suppression  of  Monmouth's  rebellion  against  James  II.,  those 
of  his  followers  who  escaped  judicial  massacre,  were  treated 
in  the  same  way.  Chalmers  furnishes,  from  the  records  of 
the  plantation  office  in  London,  a  letter  from  James  to  the 
governor  of  Virginia,  which  states,  that  the  crown  "  had  been 
u  graciously  pleased  to  extend  its  mercy  to  many  rebellious 
"  subjects  who  had  taken  up  arms  against  it;  by  ordering  their 
"  transportation  to  the  plantations;"  and  which  directs  the  go 
vernor  to  propose  a  bill  to  the  assembly  for  preventing  the 
convicts,  those  rebellious  subjects,  from  redeeming  themselves 
by  money,  or  otherwise,  until  the  expiration  of  ten  years  at 
least.  The  assembly  refused  to  co-operate  in  this  scheme  of 
royal  vengeance,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Virginia  received  the 
victims  with  the  sympathy  due  to  their  situation. 

Either  from  a  sense  of  the  futility  of  expostulation,  or 
from  the  advantage  which  the  labour  of  the  convicts  pro 
mised,  or  from  a  knowledge  of  the  fact  which  must  now  be 
clear  to  all,  that  most  of  the  persons  transported  were  but  the 
victims  of  misfortune,  and  of  the  tyranny  or  bigotry  of  their 
countrymen,  the  colonists  did  not  at  first  condemn,  or  remon 
strate  against,  the  system  of  transportation.  But  it  had  not 
been  pursued  long  after  the  Restoration,  before  open  opposition 
was  made.  Maryland  ventured  even  to  legislate  adversely, 
and  drew  upon  herself,  in  consequence,  the  reprobation  of  the 
crown  lawyers,  who  contended  that  every  law  of  the  colonial 
legislature,  passed  to  restrain  a  measure  that  was  allowed  and 
encouraged  by  acts  of  parliament,  was  void  ab  initio.  "  Whe- 
"  ther,"  says  Chalmers,  "  from  the  too  great  numbers  brought 
"  into  Maryland,  or  from  an  apprehension  that  their  vices 
"  might  contaminate  the  morals  of  the  colonists,  the  introduc- 
"  tion  of  criminals  was  then  deemed  an  inconvenience:  and  a 
''  law  was  passed  '  against  the  importation  of  convicted  per- 
"  sons  into  the  province,'  which  was  continued  at  different 
"  times,  till  towards  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Anne."f 

The  persistauce  of  the  British  government  in  the  practice 
of  transporting  real  malefactors,  after  the  colonies  had  grown 
into  considerable  commonwealths,  and  signalized  thonnselves 
by  the  noblest  qualities  and  most  valuable  services,  was  an 

*  History,  chap,  Ixi  f  Book  I.  chap,  xv 


40  CHARACTER  AND   MERITS 

PART  i.  indignity,  of  which  the  impolicy  must  be  as  obvious,  as  the 
v^-v-^^  arrogance  and  ingratitude.  If  it  could  not  extinguish  their 
glowing  loyalty,  it  was,  however,  deeply  felt  and  resented. 
In  Franklin's  piece  on  the  causes  of  the  American  discontents 
before  1768,  he  includes  it  in  the  list  of  their  grievances,  and 
employs  this  strong  language.  "  Added  to  the  evils  which  I 
"  have  enumerated,  the  Americans  remembered  the  act  au- 
"  thorising  the  most  cruel  insult  perhaps  ever  offered  by  O 
"  people  to  another,  that  of  emptying  the  English  gaols  in:o 
"  their  settlements.  Scotland,  too,  has  within  these  two  years 
"  (in  1766)  obtained  the  privilege  it  had  not  before,  of  send- 
"  ing  its  rogues  and  villains  to  the  plantations."  When  the 
illustrious  patriot  expostulated,  by  the  direction  of  his  consti 
tuents,  with  the  British  minister  on  this  head,  he  was  told  that 
England  must  be  relieved  of  her  moral  putrefaction — and  Hs 
laconic  reply  adumbrates  the  nature  of  the  case.  '"  What 
u  would  you  say,  if,  upon  the  same  principle,  we  sent  you  our 
"  rattle-snakes."  Fortunately,  there  was  a  virtue  in  the  cha 
racter  and  condition  of  the  despised  and  outraged  colonis  :s, 
which  secured  them  from  the  infection,  and  even  converted  lie 
virus  into  wholesome  nutriment  for  the  state. 

4.  The  love  of  liberty  and  independence  is  the  trait  which, 
if  any,  would  stem  to  assure  to  a  people,  the  admiration  and 
applause  of  an  Englishman,  pursuant  to  his  own  boasted 
principles  and  perpetual  claims.  It  is  impossible  to  deny  this 
merit  to  the  North  American  colonists,  even  in  the  superl  i- 
tive  degree;  whatever  doubts  may  be  affected  in  relation  to 
the  other  high  titles  asserted  for  them  by  their  descendant. 
Hume,  in  noticing  the  commencement  of  their  establishments, 
remarks  that  "  the  spirit  of  independency  which  was  then 
"  reviving  in  England,  shone  forth  in  America  in  its  full  lustre, 
"  and  received  new  accession  of  force  from  the  aspiring  charac- 
"  ter  of  those  who,  being  discontented  with  the  established 
"  church  and  monarchy,  had  sought  for  freedom  amidst  those 
"  savage  deserts."*  To  the  early  settlers,  as  well  as  to  their 
posterity  of  1775,  the  well  known  language  of  Mr.  Burke, 
was  strictly  applicable.  "  In  the  character  of  the  Americans, 
"  a  love  of  freedom  is  the  predominating  feature  which  marks 
"  and  distinguishes  the  whole.  This  fierce  spirit  of  liberty,  is 
"  stronger  in  the  English  colonies  than  in  any  other  people  of 
"  the  earth."* 


Appendix  to  the  reign  of  James  I. 
Speech  on  Conciliation  with  the  colonies. 


OP   THE    COLONISTS.  41 

The  first  planters  in  Virginia  called  for  arrangements  of  the  SECT.  II. 
most  liberal  character,  and  within  fourteen  years  from  the  ^^^^^^ 
settlement,  that  constitution  by  which  they  became  freemen 
anil  ci'izens,  was  fixed  in  its  genius  and  permanent  forms.* 
Freedom  was  the  errand  of  the  colonists  of  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts;  and  these,  so  properly  styled,  republican  dis 
senters,  framed  accordingly,  their  body  politic  and  social,  upon 
principles  of  perfect  equality.  The  complete  organization  of  a 
republic  in  the  representative  form,  within  the  same  term  after 
the  landing  at  Plymouth,  as  that  just  mentioned  in  the  case 
of  Virginia,  under  circumstances  so  new  and  critical, — in  defi 
ance  of  the  adverse  habits,  spirit,  and  scheme  of  rule,  which 
predominated  in  the  mother  country, — has  drawn  forth, expres 
sions  of  wonder  and  homage  from  some  of  the  more  liberal 
of  the  British  historians. 

As  the  Puritans  spread  themselves  over  New  England,  they 
gave  to  the  distinct  communities  which  they  established,  con 
stitutions  still  more  democratical;  and  that,  although  bold 
and  elevated  in  their  plans,  they  were  not  visionary  or  rash, 
is  proved  by  the  duration  and  happy  effects  of  those  constitu 
tions.  After  relating,  that  on  the  14th  January,  1639,  all  the 
free  planters  upon  Connecticut  river,  convened  at  Hartford, 
formed  a  system  of  government,  and  after  giving  the  substance 
of  that  system,  the  faithful  historian  of  Connecticut,  Trum- 
bull,  makes  the  following  remarks,  which  all  who  read  his 
work  must  feel  to  be  just.  u  With  such  wisdom  did  our 
venerable  ancestors  provide  for  the  freedom  and  liberties  of 
themselves  and  their  posterity.  Thus  happily  did  they  guard 
against  every  encroachment  on  the  rights  of  the  subject.  This, 
probably,  is  one  of  the  most  free  and  happy  constitutions  of 
civil  government  which  has  ever  been  formed.  The  forma 
tion  of  it  at  so  early  a  period,  when  the  light  of  liberty  was 
wholly  darkened  in  most  parts  of  the  earth,  and  the  rights  of 
men  were  so  little  understood  in  others,  does  great  honour  to 
their  ability,  integrity,  and  love  of  mankind.  To  posterity, 
indeed,  it  exhibited  a  most  benevolent  regard.  It  has  con 
tinued  with  little  alteration,  to  the  present  time,  (1814).  The 
happy  consequences  of  it,  which,  for  more  than  a  century  and 
an  half,  the  people  of  Connecticut  have  experienced,  are 
beyond  description."! 

*  "  Thus  early,"  says  Stith,  "  was  the  assembly  of  the  colony 
studious  and  careful  to  establish  our  liberties  ;  and  we  had  here,  in  the 
eighth  and  ninth  articles  of  its  laws,  a  Petition  of  Right  passed,  above 
four  years,  before  that  matter  \vas  indubitably  settled  and  explained  iu 
England." — History  of  Virginia,  book  5. 

f  Vol.  i.  c.  6. 

VOL.  I.— P 


42  CHARACTER   AND   MERITS 

PART  I.       Chalmers,  who   wrote  to  prove  the  uniform  "  self-suffi 
ciency,  an^fbellious  dispositions  of  New  England"  repre 
sents  with  much  chiding  and  lamenting,  how  "  the  first  set 
tlers   of   New   Haven  erected  a  system  suitable  indeed  to 
their  own  views,  but  altogether  independent  on  the   sove 
reign  state;"  and   how  "there  was  established,   in   Rhode 
Island  and  Connecticut,  a  mere  democracy  or  rule  of  the  peo 
ple;  every  power,  as  well  deliberative  as  active,  being  invested 
in  the  freemen  of  the  corporation,  or  their  delegates,  and  the 
supreme  executive  of  the  empire,  by  an   inattention  little  ho 
nourable  to  the  English  statesman  of  those  days,  being  wholly 
excluded."*       Hurr.l^nsnnj    in    his  Hjflfrrp  fif  Massarhnspfts 
traces,  in  a  summaryancl  striking  manner,  the  operations  of 
the  spirit  which  gives  so  much  umbrage  to  Chalmers.     "  It  i< 
"  observable,  all  the  colonies,  before  the  reign  of  king  Charles 
"  the  Second,  Maryland  excepied,  settled  a  model  of  govern- 
"  ment  for  themselves.  Virginia  had  been  distracted  under  the 
"  government  of  presidents  and  governors,  with  councils,  ir 
"  whose  nomination  or  removal  the  people  had  no  voice,  un 
"  til  in  the  year  1620,  a  house  of  burgesses  broke  out  in  the- 
"  colony,  neither  the  king,  nor  the  grand  council  at  home, 
"  having  given  any  powers  or  directions  for  it.    The  governor 
"  and  assistants  of  Massachusetts,  at  first  intended  to  rule  the 
"  people,  and,  as  I  have  observed,  obtained  their  consent  for 
"  it;  but  this  lasted  two  or  three  years  only;  and,  although  there 
Ct  is  no  colour  for  it  in  the  charter,  yet  a  House  of  Deputies 
a  appeared  suddenly,  in  1634,  to  the  surprise  of  their  magis 
"  trates,  and  (he  disappointment  of  their  schemes  for  power 
"  Connecticut  soon  after  followed  the  plan  of  Massachusetts 
"  New  Haven,  although   the  people  had  the  highest  rever- 
"  ence  for  their  leaders,  and  for  near  thirty  years,  in  judicial 
"  proceeding,  submitted  to   their  magistracy  (it  must,  how 
<c  ever,  be  remembered,  that  it  was  annually  elected,)  withou*. 
"  a  jury,  yet  in  matters  of  legislation,  the  people,  from  the 
"  beginning,  would  have  their  share  by  their  representatives. 
"  New  Hampshire  combined  together  under  the  same  form  as 
"  Massachusetts.     Lord  Say  tempted  the  principal  men  of 
u  Massachusetts  to   make   themselves  and   their  heirs  nobles 
cc  and  absolute  governors  of  a  new  colony,  but  under  this 
"  plan,  they  could  find  no  people  to  follow  them."f 

In  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  the  first  assemblies  esta 
blished  a  popular  representation,  and,  in  all  their  political 

*  Page  29&-294,  Annals, 
f  Vol.  ii.  p.  2987 


OF   THE   COLONISTS.  48 

regulations,  proceeded  upon  broad  views  of  civil  freedom.  SECT.  II. 
The  same  remark  may  be  extended  to  the  Carolinas,*  and  to  ^-^v-^* 
New  York.  The  inhabitants  of  this  province  wrested  from 
the  patentee,  the  Duke  of  York,  in  1681,  privileges  of  self 
government  similar  to  those  assumed  in  the  other  plantations. 
No  one  of  the  proprietaries  was  able  to  establish,  without 
modification,  the  constitution  which  he  framed  for  his  grant; 
all  were  compelled,  in  the  end,  to  acquiesce  in  the  more 
liberal  order  of  things  required  by  the  assemblies  of  the  peo 
ple.  In  some  of  the  provinces,  no  time  was  lost  in  abolishing 
primogeniture  and  entail,  which  Adam  Smith  so  justly  styles, 
u  the  two  most  unjust  and  unwise  regulations  that  exist." 

The  first  emigrants  to  Virginia,  New  England,  Maryland, 
and  Pennsylvania,  would  seem  to  have  been  universally, 
in  their  respective  eras,  much  in  advance  of  those  whom  they 
left  at  home,  as  regards  not  only  private  morals,  but  the  love 
and  intelligence  of  freedom.  Whoever  has  studied  the  history 
of  England,  with  the  due  attention  to  particular  facts,  must 
be  convinced,  that  until  the  revolution  of  1668,  the  theory  of 
liberty  was,  except  in  the  case  of  a  few  illustrious  individuals, 
as  little  understood  as  practised;  and  in  fact,  we  may  descend 
much  lower,  without  being  greatly  edified  on  this  head.  In 
the  time  of  James  I.  the  epoch  of  Virginia  and  New  England 
— a  slavish  reverence  of  monarchy  was  nearly  universal,  and 
the  system  of  administration  altogether  absolute  and  arbitrary. 
Of  the  social  state,  we  may  judge  from  the  representations  of 
Hume,  who  tells  us,  that  u  high  pride  of  family  then  prevailed; 
that  it  was  by  dignity  and  stateliness  of  behaviour,  that  the 
gentry  and  nobility  distinguished  themselves  from  the  com 
mon  people;"  and  that,  "  much  ceremony  took  place  in  the 
common  intercourse  of  life,  and  little  familiarity  was  in 
dulged  by  the  great."  The  concurrence  of  the  colonists  in 
the  same  political  maxims  and  arrangements,  the  reverse  of 
what  prevailed  in  England,  and  throughout  Europe, — the 
contentment  and  tranquillity  which  reigned  among  them,  as 
to  political  doctrines,  and  forms  of  government,  particularly 
in  New  England,  are  strikingly  contrasted  with  the  sanguinary 
and  unprincipled  struggles  in  the  mother  country;  with  that 
"  continued  fever  in  the  domestic  administration,"  and  those 
"  furious  convulsions  and  disorders"  which  are  so  eloquently 
painted  by  Hume.  The  political  distractions  extant  in 
the  colonial  history,  were  occasioned,  almost  universally,  by 
the  ambition  and  avarice  of  the  proprietaries,  or  the  violence 

*  See  Note  B. 


44  CHARACTER   AND   MEKlTS 

PART  i.    attempted  upon  the  charters  by  the  English  government  and 
v^-v-^*'  its  representatives  in  America. 

5.  The  preceding  survey  makes  it  sufficiently  plain  that  nc 
credit  can,  in  strictness,  be  allowed  to  England  for  the  insti 
tutions  which  the  colonists  framed,  themselves,  in  the  wilder 
ness.  Nor  is  any  fairly  due  to  her,  for  the  liberal  purport  o ' 
the  charters  which  they  received.  All  the  original  charters, 
except  that  of  Georgia,  were  granted  between  the  years  1608 
and  1688.  It  would  be  setting  at  defiance  both  history  and 
reason,  to  ascribe  to  the  house  of  Stuart,  or  to  the  Protectorate, 
any  fond  or  liberal  dispositions  in  favour  of  the  cause  of  free 
dom  in  America,  stripped  of  all  gothic  encumbrances.  An 
English  historian  has  remarked,  on  the  subject  of  the  patent! 
accorded  by  the  first  James  and  Charles,  that  these  monarch* 
were  glad  to  get  rid  of  the  turbulent,  republican  religionists, 
at  any  rate;  and  freely  invested  them  with  any  privileges,  t} 
be  exercised  on  a  desolate  continent,  at  the  distance  of  three 
thousand  miles,  where,  as  they  supposed,  it  could  never  be  cf 
account  to  extend  the  arm  of  prerogative.  The  English  Uni 
versal  History  makes  the  following  statement,  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  congregation  of  Brovvnists,  succeeded  in  their 
application: — 

"  Sir  Robert  Naunton  was  then  one  of  the  secretaries  of 
"  state,  and  the  exiled  Puritans,  as  they  were  then  called,  knew 
"  him  to  be  their  friend. 

"  They  applied  to  Naunton  for  leave  to  settle  in  those  in- 
"  hospitable  wilds,  where  the  Indians,  savage  as  they  were, 
"  were  more  desirable  neighbours  than  the  tyrants  from 
"  whom  they  fled.  Naunton  had  the  address  to  persuade 
"James  I.,  that  it  was  bad  policy  to  unpeople  his  own  king- 
"  doras  for  the  benefit  of  his  neighbours;  and  that  whatever 
"  exception  he  might  have,  he  could  have  none  in  granting 
"  them  liberty  of  conscience,  where  they  would  still  continue 
"  to  be  his  subjects,  and  where  they  might  extend  his  domi- 
"  nion.  His  majesty's  answer  was,  that  it  was  a  good  and 
"  honest  proposal,  and  liberty  was  accordingly  granted."* 

"  At  our  first  planting  America,"  says  the  author  of  the  Eu 
ropean  Settlements,  "  it  was  not  difficult  for  a  person  who  had 
"  interest  at  court,  to  obtain  large  tracts  of  land,  not  inferior  in 
"extent  to  kingdoms;  and  to  be  invested  with  a  power  very 
"  little  less  than  regal  over  them;  to  govern  by  what  laws,  and 
"to  form  what  sort  of  constitution  he  pleased."!  The  same 

*  Vol.  xl.  p.  272.  f  Vol.  ii.  p.  298. 


OF    THE    COLONISTS. 


45 


author  remarks,*  "that  nothing  of  an  enlightened  and  legisla-'SECT.  n. 
tive  spirit  appears  in  the  planning  of  the  English  colonies,  ^-^^^•^-^ 
and  that  the  charter  governments  were  evidently  copied 
from  some  of  the  corporations  at  home."  The  patent  of  the 
council  of  Plymouth  comprehended  the  continent  of  America, 
from  New  Scotland  to  Carolina.  In  less  than  eighty  years, 
fifteen  hundred  miles  of  the  sea  coast  were  granted  away.: 
some  of  the  grants, — that  especially  to  lord  Clarendon  and 
others,  of  the  whole  tract  of  country  lying  between  the  thirty- 
first  and  thirty-sixth  degrees  of  north  latitude — extended  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean:  in  several  instances  the  same  ground  was  em 
braced  in  different  grants. 

The  acquisition  of  territory  in  America  was  the  ruling 
passion  of  the  times;  and  Charles  II.  found  the  gratification 
of  this  passion  an  easy  mode  of  compensating  his  adherents, 
and  feeding  the  rapacity  of  his  courtiers.  It  is  an  observa 
tion  of  Macpherson,  in  his  Annals,  that  "  the  charters  of 
Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  were  carelessly  given  by  a  very 
careless  monarch."  The  agent  of  Connecticut  won  the  per 
sonal  favour  of  the  monarch,  by  presenting  him  with  a  ring 
of  an  extraordinary  mechanism,  the  gift  of  Charles  I.  to  the 
agent's  grandfather.  He  found  means,  also,  to  secure  the 
support  of  the  chamberlain  of  his  majesty's  household,  and  of 
the  lord  privy  seal,  for  the  colony's  petition. f  Penn  obtained 
his  patent  from  the  restored  monarch,  as  Sir  George  Calvert 
had  procured  that  of  Maryland  from  James  I. — by  virtue  of 
court  patronage.  It  had  been  promised  to  his  father,  admiral 
Penn,  a  great  favourite;  and  Clarkson  relates,  in  his  Life  of 
the  son,  that  it  was  allowed  as  payment  of  a  debt  of  sixteen 
thousand  pounds  sterling,  due  from  the  royal  government  to 
the  admiral.  Calvert  is  said  by  Chalmers  to  have  indited 
his  own  grant:  Penn  caused  to  be  given  to  his  the  com 
plexion  required  by  his  aims.  Both  of  these  illustrious  men 
were  actuated  in  the  adoption  of  liberal  provisions,  by  their 
love  of  freedom,  as  well  as  by  a  knowledge  of  their  true 
interests.  But  the  historians  are  unanimous  in  declaring 
that  the  other  lord  proprietors  gave  the  pledge  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty  from  no  other  motive  than  that  of  alluring  set 
tlers;  and  the  acknowledged  necessity  of  this  expedient  be 
speaks  the  high  character  of  those,  who,  in  that  age,  could  be 
gained  upon  no  other  terms.  Much  stress  is  to  be  laid  on  the 


*  Vol.  ii.  p.  301. 

f  Trumbull's  History  of  Connecticut,  b.  i.  c.  12. 


46  CHARACTER    AND    MERITS 

PARTI,  coincidence  of  Chalmers,  with  these  views,  and  it  maybe  as- 
v-*p~v-^^  serted  from  the  following  passages  of  his  Annals.* 

"It  was  rather  the  example  of  the  Spaniards,  than  the  practice  of 
the  renowned  nations  of  antiquity,  which  was  copied  by  England  in 
colonizing- ;  because  similar  success  and  wealth  \vas  expected.  Prompt 
ed  by  his  ambition,  perhaps  more  by  his  vanity,  the  primary  designs  of 
James  I.  were,  to  share  in  the  gold  and  silver  which  were  expected  from 
mines,  to  rule  the  colonies  in  the  same  manner  as  he  had  proposed  to 
govern  Ireland,  as  territories  belonging  to  his  person,  and  therefore 
subject  to  his  will,  though  his  ultimate  views  are  not  so  easily  discern 
ed.  The  great  corporations  -which  have  acquired  the  honour  of  planting  the 
first  permanent  settlements,  had  no  other  object,  probably,  than  the  expextation 
of  sudden  gain  from  the  -working  of  mines,  a  project,  of  all  others  the 
most  delusive,  the  most  to  be  discountenanced  by  nations  which  regard 
their  own  good."  p.  675. 

"The  country  which  had  been  denominated  Florida  by  the  French 
and  Spaniards,  by  the  English  Virginia,  at  length  owed  its  final  settle 
ment  as  much  to  the  rapacity  of  the  courtiers  of  Charles  II.,  as  to  the 
facility  of  a  prince,  who  wished  to  reward  those  to  whom  he  was  so 
much  indebted,  with  a  liberality  that  cost  him  little.  The  pretence, 
which  had  been  used  on  former  occasions,  of  a  pious  zeal  for  the  pro 
pagation  of  the  gospel  among  a  barbarous  people,  who  inhabited  an  un 
cultivated  country,  \vas  successfully  employed  to  procure  a  grant  of  that 
immense  region,  lying  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  between  the  thirty-sixth 
degree  of  north  latitude  and  the  river  Saint  Matheo.  On  the  24th  of 
March,  1663,  this  territory  was  erected  into  a  province,  by  the  name  of 
Carolina.  They,  the  lord  proprietors,  were  invested  with  as  ample 
rights  and  jurisdictions  within  their  American  palatinate,  as  any  bishop 
or  Durham  enjoyed  within  his  diocese.  And  the  present  charter  seems 
to  have  been  copied  from  that  of  Maryland. 

**  Thus  was  that  colony  established  upon  the  broad  foundation  of  a 
regular  system  of  freedom  of  every  kind  ;  which  it  was  now  deemed  ne 
cessary  to  offer  to  Englishmen,  to  induce  them  to  encounter  all  the  difficulties 
of  planting  a  distant  country,  covered -with  forests,  and  inhabited  by  numerous 
tribes  >  to  endure  the  dangers  of  famine,  and  the  damps  of  the  climate." 

When  the  nature  and  tendency  of  the  colonial  charters  be 
gan  to  be  understood  at  the  British  court,  it  was  quickly  re 
solved  to  attempt  their  destruction.  As  early  as  1635,  Charles 
I.  assailed  that  of  Massachusetts;  and  Charles  II.  repenting  of 
his  prodigal  and  heedless  distribution  of  freedom,  continued 
the  warfare  upon  colonial  liberties  in  general.  ,  All  the  char 
ters  of  New  England  were  vacated  by  James  II.,  whose  plan 
it  was  to  reduce  the  colonies  under  one  arbitrary  government. 
By  her  new,  and  forced  compact  with  king  William,  Massa 
chusetts  lost  a  valuable  part  of  her  original  privileges;  and  in 
the  reign  of  this  monarch,  Pennsylvania, — although,  indeed^ 
soon  regained,  by  the  indefatigable  zeal  and  consummate  ad 
dress  of  Perm, — was,  without  any  respect  to  her  charter, 
annexed  to  New  York,  the  province  which  had  perpetually 
to  wrestle  with  the  royal  government  for  the  common  rights 

*  Page  517. 


i 


OP    THE    COLONISTS.  47 

of  Englishmen.  Early  in  the  reign  of  queen  Anne,  a  bill' was  SECT.  n. 
brought  into  Parliament,  which  proposed  the  abrogation  of  the  <^-v-**~> 
charters  of  New  England,  of  East  and  West  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Carolina,  upon  the  ground  of 
their  being  prejudicial  and  repugnant  to  the  trade  of  the  king 
dom,  to  her  majesty's  revenue,  &c.*  The  bill  failed  from  the 
weight  of  reasonings,  looking  to  the  interests  of  the  mother 
country.  In  the  year  1748,  the  ministry  offered  another  bill, 
by  which  the  king's  instructions  were  to  have  the  force  of  law 
in  the  colonies;  but  the  plan  involved  an  usurpation  which, 
when  displayed  in  full  light,  and  traced  in  its  consequences 
both  to  England  and  America,  appeared  to  the  majority  of  the 
Commons  too  gross  and  dangerous  for  immediate  adoption.  It 
swept  away  all  the  charters  without  trial  or  legal  judgment.! 
Upon  the  occasion  of  the  extension  of  the  mutiny  act  to  Ame 
rica,  in  1755,  the  agent  of  New  England,  near  the  British  go 
vernment,  Bollan,  a  man  of  sagacity  and  impartial  mind, 
apprized  his  constituents  of  his  possessing  the  best  evidence, 
that  it  was  meditated  at  the  British  court  "  to  govern  America 
like  Ireland,  by  keeping  up  a  body  of  standing  forces  with  a 
military  chest,  under  some  act  similar  to  the  famous  Poyning's 
law." 

If  more  direct  and  determined  efforts  to  effect  the  object 
were  not  subsequently  made  by  the  government,  until  the  year 
1764,  it  was  because  the  enterprise  had  become  too  hazard 
ous.  The  colonies  had  attained  to  considerable  strength,  and 
grown  inflexibly  tenacious  of  their  liberties;  their  aid  was  in 
dispensable  for  the  destruction  of  the  French  power  on  this 
continent;  and  this  circumstance  made  it  of  course  eligible  to 
preserve,  or  at  least,  not  wholly  to  destroy,  their  good  will  and 
national  sympathy.  It  was  apprehended,  moreover,  in  queen 
Anne's  time,  as  may  be  seen  by  one  of  the  quotations  which 
1  have  made  from  Gee, — that  they  might,  if  chafed  and  dis 
gusted,  throw  themselves  into  the  arms  of  France,  and  turn 
the  scales  in  favour  of  that  hated  rival.  To  considerations  of 
this  nature  are  we  to  ascribe  the  forbearance  so  fortunate  for 
all  parties;  not  to  any  tenderness  for  transatlantic  freedom,  or 
to  a  generous  admiration  of  the  noble  spirit  and  carriage  of  the 
transatlantic  kindred.  Until  the  period  when  their  enslavement 
was  systematically  and  perseveringly  attempted,  circumstances 
had  uniformly  been  such,  as  to  render  that  course  of  proceed- 

*  For  a  particular  account  of  this  bill  and  the  proceedings  of  the 
House  of  Commons  thereupon,  see  Macpherson's  Annals  of  Commerce, 
vol.  ii\.4to.  p.  47. 

t  See  Miaot's  Continuation  of  the  History  of  Massachusetts,  p.  146, 
vol.  i. 


CHARACTER    AND    MERITS 

PART  i.  ing,  incompatible  with  the  prosecution  of  objects  deemed  of 
^^v^w  immediate  necessity  or  higher  importance.  Had  not  this  been 
the  case,  whig  and  tory  would  have  alike  assailed  the  consti 
tutional  privileges  of  British  America.  u  When  the  war  is 
closed,"  said  the  elder  Pitt  to  Dr.  Franklin,  during  the  strug 
gle  of  1756,  between  France  and  England,  "  if  I  should  be  in 
the  ministry,  I  will  take  measures  to  prevent  the  colonies,  from 
having  a  power,  to  refuse  or  delay  the  supplies,  which  may  be 
wanted  for  national  purposes." 

6.  The  system  of  religious  freedom,  coeval  with  the  esta 
blishment  of  some  of  the  colonies,  constitutes  a  proud  dis 
tinction  for  the  founders.  There  is  a  glory  to  be  envied!  by 
the  world,  in  the  first,  and  continued  recognition  and  en 
forcement  of  the  rights  of  conscience,  by  constitutional  law. 
Compared  with  it,  the  subiimest  discoveries  in  science,  the 
most  useful  inventions  in  the  arts,  the  most  majestic  physical 
monuments,  must  appear  as  secondary,  in  the  opinion  of  ibose 
who  consider  what  would  be  the  effect,  for  the  dignify  and 
happiness  of  our  species,  were  the  example  universally  fol 
lowed;  and  what  the  evils  that  have  flowed  and  continue  to 
flow,  from  religious  intolerance.  This  glory  cannot  be  denied 
to  the  provinces  of  Maryland,  Rhode  Island,*  and  Penn 
sylvania;  and  it  brightens  with  the  reflection,  how  com 
pletely  the  human  mind  was  elsewhere  shut  to  the  voice 
of  reason  and  humanity.  Religious  equality  was  unknown 
to  the  codes  of  Europe;  and  persecution,  adopting,  wherever 
it  prevailed,  the  injustice  as  well  as  terrors  of  the  inquisi 
tion,  raged  in  the  countries  claiming  to  be  the  most  refined 
and  enlightened.  Even  in  the  United  Provinces,  so  often — to 
use  the  language  of  Hume,  cited  as  models  of  toleration,  though 
all  sects  were  admitted,  yet  civil  offices  were  only  enjoyed 
by  the  professors  of  the  established  religion.  I  need  not  re 
mind  those  who  have  read  the  work  of  this  incomparable 
historian,  of  the  state  of  things  in  England — of  the  mean 
and  ignoble  arts,  as  well  as  the  sanguinary  atrocities  practised 
in  the  wars  of  the  leading  sects,  which,  as  he  remarks,  throw 
an  indelible  stain  on  the  British  annals. f  A  single  extract 
from  his  history  will  illustrate  the  progress  of  reason  and  hu 
manity  in  the  Scottish  parliament,  but  a  little  before  Penn 
organized  his  commonwealth,  and  nearly  two  generations 
after  Maryland  had  taken  the  principles  which  I  havt 
quoted,^  as  the  foundations  of  her  polity.  "  In  a  session 


*  See  Note  C.  f  Chap.  68.  }  Page  32. 


OF    THE    COLONISTS. 


49 


June,  1673,)  of  the  Scottish  parliament,  a  severe  law  was  SECT.  H 
enacted  against  conventicles.  Ruinous  fines  were  imposed  v^-v-^- 
both  on  the  preachers  and  hearers,  even  if  the  meet 
ings  had  been  in  houses;  bu*  field  conventicles  were  sub 
jected  to  the  penalty  of  death,  and  confiscation  of  goods. 
Four  hundred  marks  (Scots,)  were  offered  as  a  reward  to 
those  who  should  seize  the  criminals;  .and  they  were  indemnified 
for  any  slaughter  which  they  should  commit  in  the  execution 
of  such  an  undertaking.  And,  as  it  was  found  difficult 
to  get  evidence  against  these  conventicles,  however  numer 
ous,  it  was  enacted  by  another  law,  that,  whoever,  being 
required  by  the  council,  refused  to  give  information  upon 
oath,  should  be  punished  by  arbitrary  fines,  by  imprisonment, 
or  by  banishment  to  the  plantations."* 

The  Catholics  of  Maryland,  who  had  hoped  to  escape  the 
fell  spirit  of  triumphant  bigotry,  by  renouncing  their  country, 
were  not  long  suffered  to  remain  undisturbed  in  their  remote 
and  hard-earned  retreat.  Their  scheme  of  religious  charity, 
was  as  incomprehensible,  as  hateful,  to  their  old  persecutors. 
Some  of  the  most  desperate  and  fanatical  of  the  sectaries, 
who  had  repaired  to  the  Catholic  asylum,  were  instigated  to 
disturb  its  tranquillity,  and  to  set  themselves  in  array  against 
their  magnanimous  hosts.  During  the  Commonwealth  in 
England,  the  proprietary  government  of  Maryland  was  sub 
verted,  and  the  affairs  of  the  province  put  into  the  hands  of 
commissioners,  creatures  of  the  protector.  The  spurious  as 
sembly  which  they  convened,  after  recognizing  Cromwell's 
"  just  title  and  authority,"  enacted,  that  "  none  who  professed 
the  Popish  religion  could  be  protected  in  the  province  by  the 
laws  of  England!"  The  Catholic  missionaries  in  Maryland, 
who  from  the  year  1640,  had  begun  to  carry  the  light  of  the 
gospel  among  the  Indians,  were  compelled  to  desist,  on  the 
ground  that  they  aimed  at  forming  a  party  against  the  English 
government,  to  enable  themselves  to  become  independent. 

Things  took  nearly  the  same  course  after  the  reinstating 
of  the  proprietary  by  Charles  II.  "  The  troubles  in  Mary- 
"  land,"  says  Chalmers,  "  were  made  a  foundation,  whereon 
"  were  raised  fresh  complaints  against  the  proprietary  in  Eng- 
"  land  for  partiality  to  Papists.  Lord  Baltimore,  in  justifi- 
"  cation  of  himself  and  the  province,  showed  the  act  of  1649, 
"  concerning  religion,  which  had  been  confirmed  in  the  year 
>c  1676,  as  a  perpetual  law,  and  which  tolerated  and  protected 
"  every  sect  of  Christians,  but  gave  special  privileges  to  none. 


VOL.  I.— G 


Chapter  66. 


50  CHARACTER    AND    MERITS 

PART  I.  "  It  was  in  vain  for  him  to  represent,  that  he  had  endeavoured 
to  divide  the  offices  of  his  government  as  nearly  equal  among 
u  Protestants  and  Roman  Catholics,  as  their  abilities  would 
"  permit;  that  he  had  given  almost  the  whole  command  of  the 
"  militia  to  the  former,  who  were  entrusted  with  the  care  of 
"  the  arms  and  military  stores.  The  ministers  of  Charles  II. 
"  to  throw  the  imputation  of  popery  from  their  own  shoulders, 
"  commanded  that  all  offices  should  be  put  into  Protestant 
"  hands."* 

The  Church  of  England  was  at  length  established  by  law 
in  Maryland;  and  the  Catholics  were  rewarded  for  the  u  mild 
est  of  laws,"  for  "  a  moderation  unparalleled  in  the  annals 
of  the  world,"f  by  being  disfranchised,  and  subjected  anew 
to  the  restrictions  and  penalties,  from  which  their  charter  had 
seemed  to  assure  them  a  perpetual  protection.  The  condition 
to  which  they  were  reduced,  by  the  government  of  William, 
was  not  only  a  horrible  injustice  in  itself,  but  a  scandalous 
breach  of  national  faith.  The  Protestant  religion  had  been  al 
ready  established  by  law  in  Virginia,  in  1661,  and  that  colony 
converted,  likewise,  into,  a  theatre  of  persecution.  An  at 
tempt  was  made,  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
to  give  the  same  ascendancy  to  the  Church  of  England,  in 
Carolina;  but  it  encountered  a  spirited  and  successful  resist 
ance  from  the  inhabitants. 

7.  The  excesses  of  bigotry,  which  were  committed  by  the 
Puritans  of  New  England,  during  the  seventeenth  century, 
can  neither  be  disguised  nor  defended.  They  admit,  how 
ever,  of  some  extenuation,  which  is  to  be  found  in  such  con 
siderations  as  the  following,  offered  by  one  of  their  descend 
ants:;]: — u  To  vindicate  the  errors  of  our  ancestors,  were  to 
"  make  them  our  own.  It  is  allowed,  that  they  were  culpable; 
"  but,  we  do  not  concede  that,  in  the  present  instance,  they 
"  stood  alone,  or  that  they  merited  all  the  censure,  betowed  on 
"  them.  Laws,  similar  to  those  of  Massachusetts,  were  passed 
"  elsewhere  against  (he  Quakers,  and  particularly  in  Virginia. 
*'•  If  no  execution  took  place  here,  as  it  did  in  New  Eng- 
u  land,  it  was  not  owing  to  the  moderation  of  the  church, 
"  (Jefferson,  Virg.  Query  xviii).  The  prevalent  opinion  among 
vt  most  sects  of  Christians,  at  that  day,  that  toleration  is  sinful, 
a  ought  to  be  remembered;  nor  should  it  be  forgotten,  that  the 
u  first  Quakers  in  New  England,  beside  speaking  and  writing 
i1  what  was  deemed  blasphemous,  reviled  magistrates  an<l 

*   Chapter  15.  f  Chalmers, 

t  Holmes,  in  his  American  Annals. 


OF    THE    COLONISTS. 


51 


tc  ministers,  and  disturbed  religious  assemblies;  and  that  the  SECT.  II. 
a  tendency  of  their  tenets  and  practices  was  to  the  subversion  ^^^^^ 
"  of  the  commonwealth,  in  that  period  of  its  infancy.     (See 
"  Hubbard,  MS.  N.  Eng.  Hazard  Coll.  i.  630;  ii.  5,  96;  and 
"  the  early  historians  of  New  England.)     In  reviewing  the 
"  conduct  of  our  revered  ancestors,  it  is  but  just  to  make 
"  allowance  for  the  times  in  which  they  lived,  and  the  occa- 
"  sions  of  their  measures." 

Any  accusation  or  sarcasm  on  this  head,  comes  with  a 
wretched  air  from  Great  Britain.  Her  cotemporary  history  is 
a  tissue  of  all  that  can  be  conceived  most  atrocious,  or  malig 
nant,  or  preposterous,  in  the  hostilities  and  extravagances  of 
fanaticism;  it  cannot  be  surpassed  in  the  annals  of  those  enor 
mities  and  follies,  which  provoke  alternately  laughter  and 
tears,  scorn  and  horror.  On  comparing  the  condition  and 
pretensions  of  the  English  and  Scotch  nations,  (for  the  re 
proach  attaches  to  the  whole,)  with  those  of  the  zealots  of 
New  England,  every  one  will  perceive  at  once  on  which  side 
lies  the  greater  load  of  guilt  and  shame.  Massachusetts  had 
no  assembly  or  synod,  rivalling  the  Rump  Parliament,  or  the 
presbytery  of  Argyle; — there  is  no  transaction  in  the  history 
of  that  province,  upon  the  same  scale  of  mischief  and  absur 
dity,  as  the  affair  of  the  Popish  plot — there  is  nothing  like  the 
conviction  and  execution  of  Stafford,  upon  the  evidence  of 
Gates  and  Tuberville;  no  judicial  career  vying  with  the  cir 
cuits  of  Kirk  and  Jefferies. 

The  religious  ferment  subsided  in  New  England  before  the 
expiration  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Not  an  instance  is  to 
be  found,  in  her  subsequent  history,  of  sanguinary  or  vexa 
tious  persecution  for  variations  in  opinion  or  worship.*  The 
rigor  exercised  against  particular  sects,  in  the  other  colonies, 
is  to  be  traced  in  all  cases,  to  the  instigation,  or  general 
influence,  of  the  mother  country.  At  the  separation,  advan 
tage  was  immediately  taken  of  the  entire  freedom  of  legisla 
tion,  to  put  all  denominations  of  Christians  upon  a  footing  of 
equality;  and  this  proceeding  shows  how  prevalent  the  spi 
rit  of  toleration  had  become  among  the  colonists.  That 
the  reason  and  humanity  of  England  lagged  far  behind,  is* 
sufficiently  attested  by  the  Draconian  Code  concerning  the  Ca 
tholics,  which  survived  our  revolution,  and  the  disabilities  from 
which  the  Protestant  dissenters  are  not  yet  relieved.  If  I  did  not 
find  it  stated  in  the  fourth  number  of  the  Quarterly  Review,  that 
"  the  northern  states  have  hardly  outgrown  their  fanaticism," 
and  that  there  is,  in  America,  "  scarcely  any  medium  between 

*  See  Note  D. 


CHARACTER   AND    MERITS 

PART  I.  "  over-godliness  and  a  brutal  irreligion,"  I  would  confident- 
^^*~^  \y  appeal  for  what  we  now  are,  as  respects  our  religious 
spirit,  to  the  following  statement,  of  the  31st  number  of  that 
authoritative  journal.  "  The  old  settlers  of  America  carried 
"  with  them  -habits  of  strict  morality  and  austere  religion. 
u  The  descendants  of  these  old  settlers  have  outgrown  the 
"  intolerance  and  bigotry  of  their  ancestors,  but  have  retained 
"  their  virtues,  and  embellished  them  by  humane  manners. 
"  They  are  republicans  as  much  by  principle  and  duty  as  by 
"  prejudice  and  inheritance." 

I  would  not  hesitate  to  concede  to  the  author  of  "  the  Bri- 
tishjgmpjrg  |p  America^"  that  "  the  great  foible  of  the  New 
England  history  is  the  story  of  the  witches."* — But  this  story 
has  aspects  widely  different  from  that  under  which  it  is  ex 
hibited  abroad.  Belief  in  witchcraft  was  epidemic  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  could  not  fail  to  extend  to  New 
England.  The  insulated  situation  of  her  inhabitants, — one 
which  presents  them,  to  use  their  own  graphic  language,  as 
"  conflicting  with  many  grievous  difficulties  and  sufferings  in 
the  vast  howling  wilderness,  among  wild  men  and  wild 
beasts"! — the  austerity  of  their  domestic  habits — the  solem 
nity  of  their  religious  feelings — the  terrific  dangers  to  which 
they  were  hourly  exposed — their  daily  intercourse  with  the 
Indians,  whose  conversation  was  perpetually  of  demons  and 
necromancers — the  new  maladies  of  body,  resulting  from  a 
new  and  crude  climate — the  heart-sickening  recollections  of 
"  the  pleasant  land  of  their  nativity,"  of  which  the  ravening 
brood  of  tyrants  would  almost  be  forgotten,  as  memory  recall 
ed  its  better  features,  with  the  enjoyments  and  ties  of  their 
youth — all  these  influences  combined  against  the  force  of  their 
reason,  and  contributed  to  render  irresistible  the  contagion  of 
the  European  superstition.  The  simple  example  of  the  mo 
ther  country  might  account  for  their  infatuation;  and  the  ex 
tent,  to  which  it  is  chargeable  upon  that  example,  may  be 
understood,  from  the  following  passage  of  Hutchinson's  His 
tory  of  Massachusetts.  "  Not  many  years  before  the  delusion 
"  seized  New  England,  Glanville  published  his  witch  stories 
"  in  England;  Perkins  and  other  Nonconformists  were  earlier; 
"  but  the  great  authority  was  that  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  re- 
u  vered  in  New  England,  not  only  for  his  knowledge  in  the 
"  law,  but  for  his  gravity  and  piety.  The  trial  of  the  witches 
u  in  Suffolk  was  published  in  1684.  All  these  books  were 

*  Preface. 

f  Petition  of  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  to  the  king1.  (1680." 


OF    THE    COLONISTS.  i>J 

"  in  New  England,  and  the  conformity  between  the  behaviour  SECT.  II. 

"  of  Goodwin's  children,  and  most  of  the  suppos<  d  bewitched  ^^-v^~/ 

"  at  Salem,  and  the  behaviour  of  those  in  England,  is  so  exact 

"  as  to  leave  no  room  to  doubt  the  stories  had  been  read  by  the 

"  New  England  persons  themselves,  or  had  been  told  to  them  by 

"  others  who  had  read  them.     Indeed,  this  conformity,  instead 

"  of  giving  suspicion,  was  urged  in  confirmation  of  the  truth 

"  of  both;  the  Old   England  demons  and  the  New  being  so 

"  much  alike.     The  court  justified  themselves  from  books  of 

u  law,  and  the  authorities  of  Keble,  Dalton,  and  other  lavv- 

"  yers,  then  of  the  first  character,  who  laid  down  rules  of  con- 

"  viction  as  absurd  and  dangerous  as  any  which  were  prac- 

"  tised  in  New  England."*     The  authors  of  the  Universal 

History  have  also  stated  some  palliative  facts,  which  deserve 

to  be  reported  upon  such  authority. — uln  justice  to  the  mi- 

u  nistry  and  people  of  New  England,  we  are  to  observe,  that 

"  the  persecutions  for  witchcraft  were  carried  on  by  wretches, 

"  partly  to  gratify  their  private  resentments  and  interests,  and 

"  partly  from  a  spirit  of  enthusiasm  and  credulity;  nor  could 

"  they  have  happened,  had  it  not  been  for  the  weakness  of  the 

"  governor  and  Dr.  Mather,  who  were  rendered  the  tools  of 

"  more  designing  men.     The  people  in  general,   and  some 

sc  ministers,  particularly  Mr.  Caleb  of  Boston,  detested  them, 

"  and  remonstrated  against  them  from  the  beginning,  but  all 

"  to  no  purpose."! 

All  ranks  in  Scotland  and  England  concurred  in  raising  a 
complete  demonocracy  for  those  countries,  throughout  the  se 
venteenth  century.  Lord  Kaimes  asserts,  in  his  Sketches  of 
the  History  of  Man,  that  during  the  civil  wars  every  one  be 
lieved  in  magic,  charms,  spells,  sorcery  and  witchcraft.  An 
incident  related  by  Evelyn,  for  which  no  parallel  is  to  be 
found  in  American  history,  shows  the  temper  of  the  times,  in 
England.  "  29th  March,  1652 — was  that  celebrated  eclipse 
of  the  sun,  so  much  threatened  by  the  astrologers,  and  which 
had  so  exceedingly  alarmed  the  whole  nation,  that  hardly  any 
one  would  work  or  stir  out  of  their  houses,  so  ridiculously  were 
they  abused  by  knavish  and  ignorant  star-gazers."  The  Long 
parliament,  alias,  "the  great  reformation  parliament,"  issued 
several  commissions  "  to  discover  and  prosecute  witches," 
and  upon  those  commissions  were  many  unfortunate  persons, 
of  both  sexrs,  tried  and  executed.  We  should  not  forget  the 
testimony  of  Hume,  with  respect  to  the  state  of  Scotland,  at 
the  period  in  question.  "  The  fanaticism  which  prevailed. 


*  Vol.  ii.  chap. 


fVol.  xxxix 


54  CHARACTER   AND    MERITS 

PART  i.  "  acquired,  besides  the  malignants  and  engagers,  a  new  object 
v^-v-^>  "  of  abhorrence.  These  were  the  sorcerers.  So  prevalent  vti.s 
"  the  opinion  of  witchcraft,  that  great'  numbers,  accused  of 
"  that  crime,  were  burnt  by  sentence  of  the  magistrates, 
u  through  all  parts  of  Scotland.  In  a  village  near  Berwick, 
"  which  contained  only  fourteen  houses,  fourteen  persons  were 
"  punished  by  fire,  and  it  became  a  science  even]  where  much 
"  studied  and  cultivated,  to  distinguish  a  true  witch  by  proper 
"  trials  and  symptoms."* 

I  have  now  before  me  a  quarto  volume,  published  in  Lon 
don,  in  the  present  year  (1819),  and  entitled,  "The  memo 
rable  things  that  fell  out  within  the  Island  of  Britain,  from 
1638  to  1683,  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Robert  Law,  of  that  time." 
This  work  is  little  more  than  a  chronicle  of  the  witchcraft  of 
Britain,  during  the  interval  to  which  it  is  confined;  and,  truly, 
the  details  of  credulity  and  judicial  murder  which  it  furnishes, 
might  entitle  New  England  to  expect  very  gentle  usage  in  that 
quarter  on  the  subject  of  witchcraft.  Among  the  papers  pre 
fixed  to  the  "  Memorable  things,"  is  a  "  True  relation  of  an 
apparition,  expressions,  and  actings,  of  a  spirit,  which  infested 
the  house  of  Andrew  Mackie,  in  Scotland,  in  1695;"  which 
relation  is  signed  on  oath  by  at  least  twelve  regular  clergy 
men  of  especial  sanctity  and  authority.  The  worthy  minister, 
Law,  has  left,  in  his  journal,  a  notice  of  New  England,  which 
may  reasonably  be  taken  as  the  epitome  of  the  popular  notions 
of  the  day,  concerning  that  colony.  It  is  sufficiently  remarka 
ble  to  be  copied. 

"  (August,  1676  )  These  of  New  England  that  hail  planted  that  part 
of  America,  are  grievously  troubled  by  the  natives,  who  make  in 
roads  upon  the  plantation.-,  and  kill  many  of  the  English,  having  by 
their  slaves,  (that  were  with  the  English  and  fled  to  them,  again,) 
learned  ihe  art  of  shooting  guns,  purchasing  out  of  France  and  Holland 
guns,  swords,  and  pycks,  make  them  much  adoe  and  great  trouble,  so 
that  they  were  necessitate  to  shift  for  themselves  in  other  parts  of  the 
world.  The  truth  is,  the  Protestants  in  all  parts  of  the  world  suffer  in 
these  sad  tyises.  The  origin  of  these  in  New  England,  went  from  Eng 
land  in  the  days  of  queen  Mary  of  England,  when  the  persecution  against 
the  Protestants  was  raised  there,  and  in  the  days  of  queen  Elizabeth, 
her  successor,  a  Protestant,  was  well  supplyed  with  money  and  other 
necessaries  to  make  good  that  plantation.  They  were  all  furnished  with 
able  ministers,  and  grew  np  to  a  famous  and  glorious  church.  Their 
church  government  was  and  is  yet  independent,  and  of  their  state  it  is 
aristocratic.  They  refused  to  own  the  king  of  Britain  as  their  king,  only  in  • 
commemoration  of  their  coming  out  of  England,  they  noiv  and  then  send  him 
a  free  gift." 

For  thirty  years  after  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts, — 


*  Chapter  59. 


OP    THE    COLONISTS.  55 

while  victims  were  daily  sacrificed  by  fire  and  the  rope,  in  SECT.  H. 
Great  Britain, — none  suffered  for  witchcraft  in  that  colony.  v^-v-^*' 
Hutchinson  asserts  truly,  that  "  more  were  put  to  death  in  a 
single  county  of  England  for  that  cause,  than  suffered  in  New 
England  from  the  planting  until  his  time,  in  1760."^     The 
phrenzy    endured  in  America  but  seven  months;  whereas 
it  may  be  said  to  have  continued,  with  little  or  no  abate 
ment,   in   the  mother  country,  in   Scotland  particularly, — 
for  a  long  series  of  years.     If  Cotton  Mather  partook  of  the 
wretched  delusion,  he  was  at  least  as  excusable  as  Sir  Mat 
thew  Hale;  and  we  may  doubt  whether  there  was  any  learn 
ed  judge  of  New  England,  cotemporary  with  chief  justice 
Blackstone,  who  would  have  gravely  summed  up  the  evi 
dence,  respecting  the  reality  of  witchcraft,  and  as  gravely 
decided  it  to  be,  "  most  eligible  to  conclude,  that,  in  general, 
such  a  thing  as  witchcraft  had  been."f  North  America,  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  can  furnish  no  counterpart  for  the  story  of 
the  Cocklane  ghost.  Hutchinson  has,  on  this  subject,  some  ob 
servations  in  addition  to  those  I  have  quoted  from  him,  which 
ought  not  to  be  withheld.    "  The  trial  of  Richard  Hatheway, 
"  the  impostor,  before  lord  chief  justice  Holt,  was  ten  or 
"  twelve  years  after  the  trials  in  New  England.     This  was  a 
iC  great  discouragement  to  prosecutions  in  England  for  witch- 
"  craft,  but  an  effectual  stop  was  not  put  to  them  until  the  act 
"  of  parliament  in  the  reign  of  his  late  majesty,  George  II. 
"  Even  this  did  not  wholly  cure  the  common  people,  and  we 
"  hear  of  old  women  ducked  and  cruelly  murdered  within 
"  these  last  twenty  years.      Reproach,   then,   for  hanging 
"  witches,  although  it  has  been  often  cast  upon  tlie  people  of 
"  JVeio  England  by  those  of  Old,  yet  it  must  have  been  done 
"  with  an  ill  grace." 

8.  As  respects  political  intrepidity,  we  may  challenge  a 
comparison  between  our  ancestors,  and  the  communities  the 
most  renowned  for  that  potent  virtue.  The  instances  of  it  with 
which  our  colonial  annals  abound,  are  inestimably  precious, 
as  lessons  and  incentives  for  the  American  people  at  all  times, 
and  under  all  circumstances.  We  cannot  too  often  remind 
each  other  how  heroically  the  first  settlers,  and  the  genera- 


*  Hist,  of  Mass.  vol.  ii.  chap.  i. 

-j-  Commentaries,  b.  iv.  c.  iv.  "  Witchcraft  or  sorcery  is  a  truth  to  which 
every  nation  in  the  world,  hath,  in  its  turn,  borne  testimony,  by  either 
examples  seemingly  well  attested,  or  prohibitory  laws,  which  at  least 
suppose  the  possibility  of  a  commerce  with  evil  spirits." 


56  CHARACTER    AND    MERITS 

PART  I.  (ions  immediately  succeeding,  overlooked  their  own  physical 
v-^v~^/  weakness  and  domestic  dangers,  and  braved  the  power  and 
pride  of  the  mother  country,  in  asserting  the  rights  of  man  and 
the  privileges  recognized  or  implied  in  their  charters.  The 
complaints  which  the  British  historians  and  orators  have  ut 
tered  concerning  their  haughty  and  refractory  spirit,  and  theii 
early  aspirations  after  positive  sovereignty,  are  to  be  cherished 
as  testimonies  borne  to  the  elevation  of  their  character.  I  re 
peat  with  exultation,  and  think  there  should  be  no  anxiety  on 
the  part  of  any  American  to  avoid,  the  reproaches  intended  to 
be  made  by  such  allegations  as  the  following: — 

"  The  persons  whom  the  Plymouth  company  sj*nt  over  to  America 
as  soon  as  they  landed  there,  considered  themselves  as  individuah 
united  by  voluntary  associations,  possessing  the  natural  rights  of  men 
who  form  a  society,  to  adopt  what  mode  of  government,  and  to  enact 
what  laws  they  deemed  most  conducive  to  general  felicity.  Suitably 
to  these  ideas,  they  framed  all  their  future  plans  of  court  and  ecclesi 
astical  policy.* 

"  Massachusetts,  in  conformity  to  its  accustomed  principles,  acted 
during  the  civil  wars,  almost  altogether  as  an  independent  state.  It 
formed  leagues  not  only  with  the  neighbouring  colonies,  but  with  fo 
reign  nations,  without  the  consent  or  knowledge  of  the  government  of 
England.  It  permitted  no  appeals  from  its  courts  to  the  judicatories 
of  the  sovereign  state;  and  it  refused  to  exercise  its  jurisdiction  in  the 
name  of  the  commonwealth  of  England.  It  erected  a  mint  at  Boston, 
impressing  the  year  1652  on  the  coin,  as  the  era  of  independence.** 
Thus  evincing  to  all  what  had  been  foretold  by  the  wise,  that  a  people 
of  such  principles,  religious  and  political,  settling  at  so  great  a  distance 
from  control,  would  necessarily  form  an  independent  state.f 

"During  the  greater  part  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II,  the  colony  of 
Connecticut  acted  rather  as  an  independent  state,  than  as  the  inconsi 
derable  territory  of  a  great  nation.  The  general  orders  of  that  prince 
were  contemned,  because  the  royal  interposition  was  deemed  incon 
sistent  with  the  charter.  The  acts  of  navigation  were  despised  and 
disobeyed,  because  they  were  considered  equally  inconsistent  with 
the  freedom  of  trade  as  with  the  security  of  ancient  privileges  :  and  the 
courts  of  justice  refused  to  allow  appeals  to  England,  because  the  pow 
ers  of  ultimate  jurisdiction  were  claimed  from  the  patent.* 

"  On  receiving  authentic  news  of  the  revolution  of  1688,  and  the 
accession  of  William  and  Mary,  though  the  people  of  Massachusetts 
spoke  with  deference  of  the  higher  powers  in  England,  and  of  their 
relationship  to  it,  they  resolved,  with  their  peculiar  spirit,  that  the  settle 
ment  of  their  government  on  that  extraordinary  occasion,  belonged 
wholly  to  themselves.''* 

The  Americans  have  had  all  along  a  reluctance  to  order  and  good 
government,  since  their  first  establishment  in  their  country.  They 
have  been  obstinate,  undutiful,  and  ungovernable  from  the  very  begin 
ning  ;  from  their  first  infant  settlements  in  that  country.  They  began 
to  manifest  this  spirit  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  They  disputed 


*  Robertson's  History  of  America,  vol.  iv. 
f  Chalmers,  chap.  viiiTATiiTaTsT~*~* 
7  Ibid.    , 


OP   THE    COLONISTS.  57 

our  right  of  fishing1  on  their  coasts,  in  the  times  of  the  commonwealth  SECT.  II. 
and  protectorate,  &,c.*  ^^  -^_  . 

"  The  bud  consequences  of  planting  northern  colonies  were  early 
predicted.  Sir  Josiah  Child  foretold,  before  the  revolution,  that  they 
would,  in  the  end,  prove  our  rivals  in  power,  commerce,  and  manufac 
tures.  Davenant  adopted  the  same  ideas,  and  foresaw  what  has  since 
happened  :  he  foresaw  that  whenever  America  found  herself  of  suffi 
cient  strength  to  contend  with  the  mother  country,  she  would  endea 
vour  to  form  herself  into  a  separate  and  independent  state.  This  has 
been  the  constant  object  of  New  England,  almost  from  her  earliest  in 
fancy,"  &c.f 

We  find  the  colony  of  Virginia,  when  only  in  its  seven 
teenth  year,  (1624,)  and  just  recovered  from  the  heaviest 
disasters,  answering,  through  its  general  assembly,  an  angry  and 
insidious  inquiry  into  its  condition  and  dispositions,  ordered 
by  the  king  and  privy  council,  and  resisting  the  artifices  and 
threats  of  the  commissioners  deputed  from  England  for  the 
purpose  of  extorting  a  surrender  of  its  charter,  with  the  ut 
most  sagacity  and  boldness,  or,  to  use  the  phrase  of  its  histo 
rian,  Stith,  "  with  sharpness  and  vigour;" — with  an  array  of 
the  loftiest  principles,  and  in  a  style  of  composition,  very  little 
inferior  to  the  best  of  that  age.J  The  same  colony,  only 
twelve  years  after,  seized  the  royal  governor,  Harvey,  become 
odious  to  them  by  his  exactions  and  insolence,  and  sent  him  a 
prisoner  to  London.  And  it  is  further  illustrative  of  her  in 
trepidity,  that  Charles  I.  considered  the  proceeding  as  an  act 
of  rebellion,  and  reinstated  the  obnoxious  officer, — to  super 
sede  him,  however,  immediately,  by  one  of  a  character 
dissimilar  in  all  respects.  Virginia,  prepossessed  in  favour 
«f  the  royal  cause,  resisted  the  government  of  the  Protecto 
rate,  by  arms,  in  1651,  and  submitted  at  length  to  the  power 
ful  squadron  sent  to  enforce  her  obedience,  only  upon  terms 
which  do  infinite  honour  to  her  courage,  and  remain  a  striking 
memorial  of  her  resolute  and  enlightened  attachment  to  liber 
ty.  The  following  abstract  of  some  of  the  articles  of  capitu 
lation  will  be  read  with  interest.  1.  u  The  plantation  of 
*'  Virginia,  and  all  the  inhabitants  thereof,  shall  remain  in 
"  due  subjection  to  the  Commonwealth  of  England,  not  as  a 

*  Earl  TalbQ.t,in.ti<  F  Lords.    Debate  of  Feb.  29, 1776. 
|  Lord  Mansfield,  in  the  House  of  Lords.'  ^Debate  Nov.  15,  1775. 

*  See  the  account  of  this  controversy,  in   the  5th  book-_of  Stall's 
History  oX  Virginia.      "Every  titheable  or  taxable  inhabitant,"  says 
Burk,  "voted  for  members  of  assembly.     And  what  honour  does  not 
the  choice  of  such  an  assembly  as  that  of  1624,  reflect  on  the  colonists ; 
what  sagacity  and  public  spirit  does  it  not  suppose  in  them,  at  a  junc 
ture  so  delicate  and  trying,  to  have  selected  a  body  which  immediately 
saw  their  true  interest,  and  pursued  it  with  ardour  and  unanimity,  in  the 
face  of  the  royal  commissioners,  and  in  defiance  of  the  authority  and 
resentment  of  the  kinir." 

VOL.  I.—  H 


58  CHARACTER   AND   MERITS 

PART  l.  "  conquered  country,  but  as  a  country  submitting  by  their  own 
^~*"**~s  "  voluntary  act,,and  shall  enjoy  such  freedoms  and  privileges 
"  as  belong  to  the  free  people  of  England.  2.  The  general  as- 
"  sembly,  as  formerly,  shall  convene,  and  transact  the  affairs 
"  of  the  colony.  3.  The  people  of  Virginia  shall  have  a 
"  free  trade,  as  the  people  of  England,  to  all  places,  and  with 
"  all  nations.  4.  Virginia  shall  be  free  from  all  taxes,  cus- 
"  toms,  and  impositions  whatsoever;  and  none  shall  be  im- 
"  posed  on  them,  without  consent  of  the  general  assembly; 
<c  and  neither  forts  nor  castles  be  erected,  or  garrisons  main- 
"  tained  without  their  own  consent."* 

Her  subsequent-conduct  has  been  the  theme  of  lofty  pane 
gyric  with  all  the  historians.  She  took  advantage  of  the  sud 
den  death  of  a  governor  named  by  Cromwell ,  to  restore  the 
royal  officers,  and  proclaimed  Charles  II.  even  before  intelli 
gence  was  received  of  the  demise  of  the  Protector.  The  spirit 
which  produced  these  exploits,  descended  without  interruption 
or  enervation,  and  proved  its  identity  and  divinity  in  the  reso 
lutions  offered  by  Patrick  Henry,  in  1765;  in  the  propositions 
for  a  general  congress,  and  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

The  career  pursued  by  Massachusetts  from  her  birth, 
is  pre-eminent  for  daring,  as  well  as  dexterity,  and  may 
be  considered  in  these  respects  as  unique  in  the  annals  of  the 
world.  To  the  charter,  as  containing  a  confirmation  of  some 
portion  of  her  natural  liberty,  she  clung  with  a  pertinacious- 
ness,  under  every  vicissitude  and  pressure,  which  must  awaken 
in  all  generous  breasts,  a  thrilling  sympathy,  and  a  lively  admi 
ration.  Diminutive  as  she  was  in  1635,  yet,  when  a  rumour 
reached  the  colonies,  that  the  measure  of  a  general  government 
for  New  England,  was  decided  upon  at  the  British  Court,  her 
magistrates  and  clergy  agreed  unanimously  that,  u  if  such  a  go 
vernor  were  sent,  the  colony  ought  not  to  accept  him,  but  to  de 
fend  its  lawful  possessions."  When  her  patent  was  demanded 
in  1638,  by  order  of  the  king  in  council,  it  was  answered,  that 
if  the  charter  should  be  taken  away,  the  people  would  re 
move  to  another  place,  and  confederate  under  some  new  form 
of  government;  and  fc  such  was  their  resolution,"  says  the 
historian  Hutchinson,  u  that  they  would  have  sought  a  va 
cuum  domicilium,  (a  favourite  expression  with  them,)  in  some 
part  of  the  globe,  where  they  would,  according  to  their  appre 
hensions,  have  been  free  from  the  controul  of  any  European 
power."f  We  have  the  evidence  of  one  of  the  spies  of 

*  See  vol.  ii.  chap.  ii.  of  Bark's  History  of  Virginia: — for  the  entire 
convention,  and  a  just  commentary  upon  the  magnanimous  deportment 
of  the  colony. 

f  Vol.  i.  p.  87. 


OF   THE    COLONISTS.  59 

Archbishop  Laud,  in  the  colony,  that  it  was,  at  this  period  of  SECT,  a 
her  history,  accounted  perjury  and  treason  in  her  General  v^-v^/ 
Court,  to  speak  of  appeals  to  the  king. 

In  1641,  the  General  Court  established  the  one  hundred  laws, 
called  the  Body  of  Liberties.    The  strain  of  them,  so  abhorrent 
and  advantageously  distinguished,  from  the  genius  of  the  cotein- 
porary  legislation  in  England,  shows  with  what  fearless  deter 
mination  these  pilgrims  marched  up  to  their  invariable  object, 
of  civil  and  religious  freedom.   The  memorable  league  of  the 
New  England  plantations,  in    1643,^   is   another  proof  of 
the  independent  and  confident  spirit,  with  which  they  provided 
for  their  own  protection.      "  It  originated,"  says  Chalmers, 
"  with  Massachusetts,  always  fruitful  in  projects  of  indepen 
dence.   No  patent  legalized  the  confederacy,  which  continued 
until  the  dissolution  of  the  charters,  in   1 686.     Neither  the 
consent  nor  approbation  of  the  governing  powers  in  England 
was  ever  applied  for  or  given.      The  principles  upon  which 
this  famous  association   was  formed  were  altogether  those  of 
self-government,  of  absolute  sovereignty."!  Massachusetts  saw 
from  the  beginning,  the  true  bearing  of  the  acts  of  naviga 
tion  of  1651,  and  1660,  and  of  the  custom  house  duties  pre 
scribed  in  1672,  upon  her  interests  and  natural  rights,  and  she 
evaded  or  resisted  them,  until  the  whole  weight  of  the  mother 
country  was  turned  to  their  enforcement.     The  officer  sent 
from  England,  to  collect  the  customs  at  Boston,  was  recalled, 
upon  his   representation,  "  that  he  was  in  danger  of  being 
punished  with  death,  by  virtue  of  an  ancient  law,  as  a  sub- 
verter  of  the  constitution."     When  taxed  with  disobedience, 
the  General  Court  did  not  hesitate  to  allege,  that  "  the  acts  of 
navigation  were  an  invasion  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
subjects  of  his  majesty  in  that  colony,  they  being  not  repre 
sented  in  Parliament;  and  that,  according  to  the  usual  sayings 
of  the  learned  in  the  law,  the  laws  of  England  were  bounded 
within  the  four  seas,  and  did  not  reach  America."     Some  of 
the  other  provinces  joined  in  this  language,  and  were  equally 
hardy  in  their  practice.  Massachusetts,  from  the  outset,  openly 
contended  against  the  doctrine,  that  Parliament  had  a  right  to 
make  laws  binding  the  colonies  in  all  cases  whatsoever;  she 
denied  the  competency  of  that  body  to  impose  any  tax  upon 
them,  without  the  consent  of  their  legislatures.     Her  theory, 
on  this  head,  was  solemnly  proclaimed  in  1692,  and  embo 
died  in  one  of  the  laws  which  she  then  framed  under  the  new 

*  See  vol.  i.  of  Trumbull's  History  of  Connecticut,  for  a  detailed 
account  of  this  confederation. 
f  Chap.  viii.  Annals. 


60  CHARACTER   AND    MERITS 

PART  i.  charter  received  from  William.  In  1663,  Rhode  Island  for* 
v^-v-1^'  mally  enacted  it,  as  one  of  her  privileges,  that  no  tax  should 
be  imposed  on,  or  required  of  the  colonists,  but  by  the  Gene 
ral  Assembly.  The  Assembly  of  New  York  nobly  passed  reso 
lutions  to  the  same  purport,  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  As  early  as  1624,  the  Assembly  of  Virginia  had 
set  the  example  of  asserting  this  principle  as  fundamental. 

Massachusetts  manifested  a  strong  predilection  for  the 
cause  of  the  independents  in  England,  during  ihe  civil 
wars;  but  she  resisted  the  attempts  of  the  Long  Parlia 
ment  upon  the  sacred  charter.  Being  strongly  advised,  i:i 
1641,  when  suffering  much  domestic  distress  and  embar 
rassment,  to  solicit  parliamentary  aid  or  patronage,  she 
steadily  refused,  with  a  train  of  reasoning,  which  well  de 
serves  to  be  noted. — "  If  we  place  ourselves  under  the  protec 
tion  of  Parliament,  we  must  be  subject  to  all  such  laws  as 
they  should  make,  or  at  least,  such  as  they  might  impose  upo.i 
us,  in  which  course,  though  Parliament  might  intend  our 
good,  yet  it  might  prove  very  prejudicial.""* 

The  carriage  of  the  northern  colonies,  on  the  restoration, 
when  all  England  fell  prostrate  before  the  monarchical  pageant, 
— may  be  best  told  in  the  angry  language  of  the  loyal  Chalmers. 
"  The  people  of  New  England  received  the  tidings  of  that  in 
teresting  event  with  a  caution  bordering  on  incredulity;  an 
nounced  the  king  in  a  manner  almost  insulting;  and  submitted 
not  to  the  resolutions  of  the  supreme  power,  till  they  had,  by  their 
own  resolves,  declared  tlieir  own  privileges.**  The  affectionate 
reception  which  Connecticut  gave  to  the  regicides,  even  after 
their  attainder  by  Parliament,  who  here  enjoyed  a  long  life  of 
miserable  security,  and  died  in  peace,  sufficiently  demon 
strates  her  principles  and  attachments.!  She  received  the 
royal  commissioners  with  studied  indifference,  and  with  a 
fixed  resolution  to  deride  their  authority  and  disobey  their  com 
mands.;):" 

*  Hutchinson,  chapter  i. 

f  The  regici cl e"s",~ tcTwh om  our  author  refers,  were  Whalley  and 
GoflTe,  men  of  great  abilities  and  accomplishments,  of  a  noble  spirit, 
and  winning  demeanour.  The  conduct  of  the  people  of  New  England 
towards  them,  does  not,  methinks,  suffer  in  the  comparison  with  the 
procedure  related  in  the  following  passage  of  Evelyn's  Memoirs  : 
"  This  day,  the  30th  of  Jany.  1660,  were  the  carcases  of  those  arcli 
rebells  Cromwell,  Bradshaw,  the  judge  who  condemned  his  majesty, 
and  Ireton,  sonn-in-law  to  ye  usurper,  drag-g-'d  out  of  their  superb 
tombs  in  WestnT".  among  the  kings,  to  Tyburn,  and  hang'd  on  the  gal 
lows  there  from  9  in  y«  morning  till  six  at  night,  and  then  buried  under 
that  fatal  and  ignominious  monument  in  a  deepe  pit,  thousands  who  ha  I 
seen  them  in  all  their  pride,  being  spectators."  (Vol.  i.  p.  317.) 

*  Chapter  xii.  Annals. 


OF   THE    COLONISTS.  61 

New  England  generally,  prohibited  all  appeals  to  the  par-  SECT.  n. 
iiamerit  or  the  king  in  council;  and  Massachusetts  in  particu-  v^^-^ 
lar,  fined  and  imprisoned  certain  persons,  for  designing  to  so 
licit  parliament  to  revise  a  sentence  of  the  General  Court. 
This  body,  on  the  arrival  of  the  commissioners  sent  by  Charles 
II.  in  1665,  to  investigate  and  regulate  the  affairs  of  New 
England,  put  them  under  close  supervision;  refused  to  recog 
nize  their  authority,  or  to  impose  the  oath  of  allegiance  required 
from  the  people,  unless  with  nice  restrictions  and  limitations; 
counteracted  all  their  proceedings,  and  resolved  "  to  adhere  to 
the  patent  so  dearly  obtained  and  so  long  enjoyed  by  undoubted 
right  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man."  The  commissioners  would 
seem  to  have  been  imbued  with  something  of  the  spirit  which 
actuates  the  modern  English  critics.  One  of  their  letters,  to 
the  general  court,  dated  in  1668,  begins  thus:  "We  have  re 
ceived  a  letter  from  your  marshal,  subscribed  by  the  secreta- 
tary,  so  full  of  untruth,  and  in  some  places  wanting  grammar 
construction,  that  we  are  unwilling,"  &c.  The  account  which 
Chalmers  gives  of  the  conclusion  of  their  transactions  in 
Massachusetts,  is  an  amusing  picture  of  the  temper  of  both 
parties. 

"  The  commissioners  at  length  peremptorily  asked  the  general  court, 
*  Do  you  acknowledge  the  royal  commission  to  be  of  full  force  to  all 
the  purposes  contained  in  it  ?'  But,  to  a  question  at  once  so  decisive 
and  embarrassing,  the  general  court  excused  itself  from  giving  a  direct 
answer,  and  chose  rather  to  'plead  his  majesty's  charter."  The  com 
missioners,  however,  attempting  to  hear  a  complaint  against  the  go 
vernor  and  Company,  the  general  court,  with  a  characteristic  vigour, 
published  by  sound  of  trumpet,  its  disapprobation  of  this  proceeding, 
and  prohibited  every  one  from  abetting  a  conduct  so  inconsistent  with 
their  duty  to  God  and  their  allegiance  to  the  king.  And,  in  May,  1665, 
the  commissioners  determined  '  to  lose  no  more  labour  upon  men,  who 
misconstrued  all  their  endeavours,  and  opposed  the  royal  authority.' 
They  soon  after  departed,  threatening  their  opponents  « with  the  pu 
nishment  which  so  many  concerned  in  the  late  rebellion  had  met  with 
in  England.'  "* 

All  the  agents  of  New  England  with  the  British  govern 
ment,  had  it  in  especial  charge  "  to  consent  to  nothing  that 
should  infringe  the  liberties  granted  by  charter." 

The  manner  in  which  Connecticut  frustrated  the  attempt 
of  Andros,  in  1675,  to  acquire  for  the  Duke  of  York  the 
country  lying  westward  of  the  Connecticut  river — the  discom 
fiture  of  the  same  tyrannical  viceroy  ofthe  Stuarts,  when  he 
endeavoured,  in  1687,  to  possess  himself  of  her  charter — his 
deposition  and  imprisonment  by  the  people  of  Boston,  in  1689, 


*  Chap.  xvi.  Annals. 


62  CHARACTER    AND    MERITS 

PARTI,    and  the  resumption,  by  all  the  New.  England  provinces,  of 
their  abrogated  charters  and  forms  of  government,  even  be 
fore  they  received  any  certain  intelligence  of  the  success  o  ' 
William  in  England — the  re-establishment,  in  1668,  of  tin 
authority  of  Massachusetts  over  New  Hampshire,  by  the  ge 
neral  court,  in  defiance  of  the  royal  authority* — the  violen ; 
subversion,  in  1672,  of  the  proprietary  government  in  New 
Jersey — the  insurrectionary  movements  of  Albemarle  in  1677 
, — the  revolution  of  1719  in  South  Carolina — the  successful 
struggles  of  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts,  between  the 
years  1721  and  1730,  with  the  royal  governors  of  that  inter 
val,  backed  as  they  were  by  the  countenance  of  the  crown — 
are  all  so  many  additional  incidents,  which  may  be  singlec 
out  of  a  multitude,  to  exemplify    the  passionate    zeal,  the 
fearlessness,  and  activity  of  the  first  generations  of  Ameri 
cans,  in  the  cause  of  civil  liberty;  as  their  institutions  may 
be  cited  to  prove  their  clear  discernment  of  its  true  prin 
ciples   and  appropriate  forms.      England   possessed,  in  the 
seventeenth   century,   some    votaries  to  the  same  cause,  of 
the  largest  views   and  boldest  determination:  but  the   true 
model  of  freedom  was,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  neither 
sought  nor  comprehended  by  the  nation  in  general.     This  is 
palpable  from  the  despotic  genius  of  the  Commonwealth,  and 
the  kindred  spirit  of  the  Restoration.     The  main  spring  and 
principle  of  the  civil  wars,  and  even  of  the  revolution  of  1688, 
was  religious  rancour;  not  the  desire  or  intelligence  of  political 
liberty — an  object  always  subordinate  to  the  gratification  of 
fanatical  hate,  and  the  acquisition  of  inordinate  power.     It  is 
said  by  Hume,  that  the  British  were,  in  the  time  of  Charles  I., 
and  till  long  after,  of  all   the  European  nations,  the  most 
under  the  influence  of  that  religious  spirit,  which  tends  to  in 
flame  bigotry  and  beget  desperate  factions.     "  The  Scotch 
nation,"  he  adds,  "  plainly  discovered,  after  the  restoration^ 
that  their  past  resistance  had  proceeded  more  from  the  turbu- 
lency  of  their  aristocracy,  and  the  bigotry  of  their  ecclesiastics, 
than  from  any  fixed  passion  towards  civil  liberty." 

The  New  England  plantations  could  not  feel,  and  did  not  find 
themselves,  secure  in  their  distance  from  the  British  court. 
Whatever  influence  the  circumstance  of  this  distance  might  be 
supposed  to  exert  in  bracing  their  spirit,  it  must  have  been  more 
than  counteracted  by  the  Immense  disparity  of  strength;  and  the 
belief,  that,  if  pressed,  a  new  emigration  was  their  only 


*  Chalmers,  chap.  xix. 


OP    THE    COLONISTS.  63 

resource.  Their  situation  altogether,— apparently  so  forlorn  and  SECT.  n. 
critical, — had  a  stronger  tendency  to  inspire  docility  and  sub-  v-^v^-' 
mission  to  the  house  of  Stuart,  than  the  relative  position  of 
the  British  people.  But  let  the  language  and  countenance  of 
the  government  of  New  England,  in  the  year  1685,  be  com 
pared  with  those  of  the  British  parliament,  towards  James  II. 
at  the  same  period.  "  The  parliament,"  says  Hume,*  "pro 
ceeded  to  examine  the  dispensing  power,  and  voted  an  address 
against  it.  The  address  was  expressed  in  the  most  respectful 
and  submissive  manner,  yet  it  was  very  ill  received  by  the 
king,  and  his  answer  contained  a  flat  denial.  The  Commons 
were  so  daunted  with  this  reply,  that  they  kept  silence  a  long 
time;  and  when  Coke,  a  member  from  Derby,  rose  and  said, 
c  I  hope  we  are  all  Englishmen,  and  not  to  be  frightened  by  a 
few  hard  words,'  so  little  spirit  appeared  in  that  assembly, 
often  so  refractory  and  mutinous,  that  they  sent  him  to  the 
tower  for  bluntly  expressing  a  free  and  generous  sentiment. 

"  On  their  next  meeting,  they  very  submissively  proceeded 
to  the  consideration  of  the  supply  demanded  by  the  court,  and 
even  went  so  far  as  to  establish  funds  for  paying  the  sum  voted 
in  nine  years  and  a  half.  The  king,  therefore,  had,  in  effect, 
almost  without  a  struggle,  obtained  a  total  victory  over  the 
Commons;  and  instead  of  contesting  an  additional  revenue  to 
the  crown;  and  rendering  the  king  in  some  degree  independent, 
contributed  to  increase  those  imminent  dangers,  with  which 
they  had  so  good  reason  to  be  alarmed." 

I  shall  have  occasion,  as  I  proceed  with  the  main  subject, 
to  notice  so  many  brilliant  traits  of  civil  courage,  in  the  ca 
reer  of  the  colonists,  that  I  ought  to  be  satisfied,  with  what 
I  have  adduced;  and  it  is  not,  moreover,  a  part  of  my  plan, 
to  particularize  here,  their  beroip  proceedings  after  the  passage 
of  the  stamp  act;  which  are  sufficiently  emblazoned  in  the 
admiration  expressed  by  the  most  respectable  voices  and 
pens  of  England  herself.  But  I  must  be  indulged  with  culling 
from  the  history  of  Massachusetts  a  couple  of  incidents  more, 
as  contrasts  to  the  anecdote  just  quoted  from  Hume.  When 
Andros,  as  governor  general  of  New  England,  by  the  appoint 
ment  of  James  II.  imposed,  in  the  beginning  of  1688,  a  tax  of 
a  penny  in  the  pound  on  all  the  towns  under  his  government, 
the  select  men,  (municipal  officers,)  of  those  of  Massachusetts, 
particularly  of  Ipswich,  voted,  "that  inasmuch  as  it  was  against 
the  common  privileges  of  English  subjects,  to  have  money 
raised  without  their  own  consent  given  in  an  assembly  or  par 
liament;  therefore  they  would  petition  the  king  for  liberty  of 
an  assembly  before  they  made  any  rates" — nor  did  they  yield 

*  Chapter  Ixx. 


64  CHARACTER   AND   MERITS 

PART  I.  the  point,  although  put  to  the  test  by  imprisonment  and  heavy 
^•^~v-w  fines.*  The  other  case  is  of  the  year  1761.  In  that  year,  the 
governor  of  the  colony,  Bernard,  took  upon  himself  to  equip 
the  province  sloop  Massachusetts,  upon  a  more  expensive  scale 
than  that  prescribed  by  the  House  of  Assembly,  or  than  what 
was  called,  "  the  old  establishment.'1  On  receiving  from 
him  a  message  relating  to  it,  the  house  immediately  prepared, 
and  voted  by  a  large  majority,  an  answer  which  contained  the 
following  passages:  "Justice  to  ourselves  and  our  constituents 
oblige  us  to  remonstrate  against  the  method  of  making  or  in 
creasing  establishments,  by  the  governor  and  council.  It  is. 
in  effect,  taking  from  the  House  their  most  darling  privilege, 
the  right  of  originating  all  taxes." 

"  No  necessity  can  be  sufficient  to  justify  a  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  in  giving  up  such  a  privilege;/or  it  would  be  of  link 
consequence  to  the  people,  whether  tliey  were  subject  to  George. 
or  Louis,  the  king  of  Great  Britain  or  the  French  king,  if  both 
were  arbitrary,  as  both  ivould  be,  if  both  could  levy  taxes  without 
parliament." 

9.  The  most  prejudiced  of  the  English  writers  have  scarcely 
ventured  to  decry  the  domestic  morals  and  habits  of  the  earl) 
^  colonists.  Industry,  order,  temperance,  and  the  social  affec 
tions  were  demonstrated  by  the  rapid  increase  of  their  means, 
comforts,  and  numbers,  and  by  the  stability  of  their  institu 
tions.  The  rarity  of  political  changes,  or  intestine  dissen- 
tions,  of  domestic  origin,  after  the  several  communities  were 
formed,  is  in  itself,  adequate  proof  of  the  general  subordina 
tion  to  the  authority  of  law  and  reason.  Hutchinson  men 
tions  that  "  in  the  Massachusetts  colony,  for  the  first  thirty 
years,  although  the  governor  and  assistants  were  annually 
chosen  by  the  body  of  the  people,  yet  they  confined  themselves 
to  the  principal  gentlemen  of  family,  estate,  understanding 
and  integrity;"  and  that  "  there  were  instances  in  the  char 
ter  governments  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  where 
the  representatives  had  virtue  enough  to  withstand  popular 
prejudices,  when  the  governor's  council  had  not."f  The 
question  of  restoring  to  New  England,  the  charter  suppressed 
by  James  II.,  was  submitted,  after  the  accession  of  William  III, 
to  Hook,  an  eminent  lawyer  of  the  British  capital.  This 
enlightened  individual,  in  pronouncing  in  the  affirmative,  did 

*  See  "  A  Narrative  of  the  Miseries  of  New  England,  by  reason  of  an 
arbitrary  government  erected  there  by  James  II."  This  curious  pam 
phlet,  which  arraigns  with  the  utmost  severity  the  administration  of  An 
dros,  was  printed  in  Boston  during  what  it  calls  "  his  tyrannic  reign," 
and  re-printed  in  the  same  place  in  the  near  1775. 

f  Vol.  ii.  chap.  i. 


OF  THE   COLONISTS.  65 

not  hesitate  to  describe  the  colonists  as  "  a  people  who  had  SECT.  II. 
maintained  civility  beyond  any  other  on  earth"  The  authors  v^-v-^ 
of  the  modern  part  of  the  Universal  History,  referring  to  the 
same  era,  remark,  that  "  the  police  of  the  inhabitants  of  New 
England,  with  regard  to  their  morals,  surpassed  that  of  any 
in  the  world."  Such,  indeed,  was  their  reputation  for  dis 
cipline  and  virtue,  that  the  pious  of  the  mother  country,  sent 
over  their  children  for  education.  The  legislators  of  New 
England  were,  indeed,  exorbitantly  austere  with  respect  to 
the  elegant  recreations  of  civilized  life:  They  prohibited, 
moreover,  horse  racing,  cock  fighting,  bull  and  bear  baiting. 
In  excluding  these  vulgar  and  vicious  sports,  they  certainly  did 
not  suffer  in  the  contrast  with  those  who,  in  Britain,  tolerated 
such  pastime  as  the  following,  of  which  we  read  in  Evelyn's 
Memoirs:  "  There  was  now  (April,  1667,)  a  very  gallant 
horse  to  be  baited  to  death  with  dogs. — They  run  him  through 
with  their  swords,  when  the  dogs  did  not  succeed,"  &c. 

Religion  was  the  fundamental  order  of  society,  and  uni 
versally  cultivated,  in  all  the  colonies  north  of  the  Potomac, 
except  New  York.  Even  in  this  province,  into  whose 
political  being  it  had  not  entered  as  an  element,  as  in  the 
case  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  England,  it  flourished  in 
considerable  vigour  and  diffusion.  Throughout  New  Eng 
land,  the  first  measure  in  the  organization  of  the  com 
monwealths,  was  to  establish  a  system,  by  which  all  should 
partake  of  religious  worship  and  instruction.  The  represen 
tation  which  was  made  officially  in  1680,  to  the  Committee 
of  Plantations,  concerning  the  condition  of  Connecticut  in 
this  respect,  admits  of  being  applied  to  the  whole  of  New 
England.  "  Great  care  is  taken  of  the  instruction  of  the 
people  of  Connecticut  in  the  Christian  religion,  by  minis 
ters  catechising  and  preaching  twice  every  Sabbath,  and 
sometimes  on  lecture  days;  and  also  by  masters  of  families 
instructing  and  teaching  their  children  and  servants,  which  the 
law  commands  them  to  do.  We  have  twenty-six  towns  and 
there  are  twenty-one  churches  in  them,  and  in  every  one  there 
is  a  settled  minister." 

A  mild,  steady,  sedulous  piety,  very  little  polemical  or 
fanatical,  distinguished  the  founders  of  Pennsylvania;  spread 
its  purifying  and  quickening  influence  over  the  new  settlers 
of  every  nation  and  sect,  and  gave  a  permanent  complexion 
of  efficacious  faith  to  that  province.  New  Jersey  had  risen 
under  the  same  fortunate  auspices,  and  wore  a  similar 
aspect.  To  the  excellent  religious  character  of  Maryland, 
during  the  seventeenth  century,  even  Chalmers  bears  tes- 

VOL.    I.— I 


66  CHARACTER  AND   MERITS 

PART  I.  timony,  in  opposition  to  those  who,  out  of  a  charitable  abo- 
^-^v-^>  mination  of  the  bare  existence  of  Popery,  and  in  order  to 
persuade  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  of  the  necessity  of  an 
established  Protestant  religion  in  the  province,  scrupled  not  to 
paint  it  as  a  "  Sodom  of  uncleanness,  and  a  pest  house  of 
iniquity."*  Virginia  was  devoted  to  the  Church  of  England; 
supported  a  numerous  clergy,  upon  a  most  liberal  establish 
ment;  and  in  all  her  ecclesiastical  arrangements,  as  they  are 
detailed  by  the  historian,  Beverley,t  manifested  a  lively  and 
honest  solicitude  for  the  diffusion  and  decency  of  divine  worship. 
In  her  feelings  on  this  head,  Burk  finds  a  satisfactory  solution 
for  her  tenacious  adherence  to  the  royal  cause.  His  observations 
are  sufficiently  remarkable  to  be  copied.  "  The  measures  of 
the  patriots  in  England,  manifestly  tended  to  a  complete  al 
teration,  or  rather  abolition,  of  the  forms  and  discipline  of  that 
church,  which  the  Virginians  had  been  accustomed  to  revere; 
and  theTuritans,  whom  they  held  in  abhorrence,  appeared  as 
the  principal  agents  in  this  scheme  for  the  destruction  of  reli 
gion."  "  T/iis,  I  apprehend,  was  the  principal,  if  not  the  only 
motive  for  their  new  born  ardour,  in  favour  of  royalty.  Their 
political  attachments  were  obviously  on  the  other  side;  and 
in  the  career  of  liberty  and  resistance,  they  had  even  antici 
pated  and  outstripped  the  Parliament.  They  had  the  same 
marked  regard  for  their  rights  and  privileges,  as  this  illustrious 
body;  they  resisted  with  equal  ardour,  and  for  a  long  time, 
with  greater  success,  the  encroachments  and  the  insolence  of 
the  crown."| 

For  the  practical  religion  of  Great  Britain,  during  the  seven 
teenth-century,  I  refer  my  readers  to  any  the  most  national  of 
her  historians.  In  marking  the  furious,  desolating  fanaticism 
of  the  Roundheads,  Hume  admits,  that  riot,  disorder,  and  in 
fidelity  prevailed  very  much  among  the  partisans  of  the 
church  and  monarchy.  The  mutual  hatred  and  excitement  of 
sects  gave,  he  remarks,  just  reason  to  dread,  at  every  moment, 
"  all  the  horrors  of  the  ancient  massacres  and  proscriptions."^ 
A  stale  of  faction  and  rebellion,  of  political  and  religious  dis 
sension,  inflamed  into  sanguinary  wars — was  but  little  favour 
able  to  morals,  and  necessarily  produced  a  general  taint,  which 
would  not  soon,  if  ever,  be  completely  expelled.  Its  effects 
are  visible  to  us  in  the  literary  works  which  are  in  our  hands, 
and  which  justify  the  observation  of  Hume,  that,  of  all  the 

*  See  Chalmers'  Political  Annals,  chap.  xv. 
|  History  of  Virginia,  from  1585  to  1780,  b.  iv. 
±  History  of  Virginia,  vol.ii.  c.  ii. 
§  History  of  England,  chap.  Ixii. 


OF   THE    COLONISTS. 


67 


considerable  writers  of  the  age  of  the  two  last  Stuart^  "  Sir  SECT.  H. 
William  Temple  is  almost  the  only  one  who  kept  himself  al-  v-^~v-^ 
together  unpolluted  by  that  inundation  of  vice  and  licentious 
ness  which  overwhelmed  the  nation."*  The  fidelity  of  tht 
general  picture  drawn  by  the  same  master  hand,  has  never 
been  questioned.  u  The  people,  during  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 
and  James  II.  were,  in  a  great  measure,  cured  of  that  wild 
fanaticism,  by  which  they  had  formerly  been  so  much  agi 
tated.  Whatever  new  vices  they  might  acquire,  it  may  be 
doubted,  whether,  by  this  change,  they  were,  in  the  main, 
much  losers  in  point  of  morals.  By  the  example  of  the  king 
and  the  cavaliers,  licentiousness  and  debauchery  became  very 
prevalent  in  the  nation.  The  pleasures  of  the  table  were 
much  pursued.  Love  was  treated  rather  as  an  appetite  than  a 
passion.  The  one  sex  began  to  abate  of  the  national  charac 
ter  of  chastity,  without  being  able  to  inspire  the  other  with 
sentiment  or  delicacy.  The  abuses  in  the  former  age,  arising 
from  overstrained  pretensions  of  piety,  had  much  propagated 
the  spirit  of  irreligion;  and  many  of  the  ingenious  men  of  this 
period,  lie  under  the  imputation  of  Deism.  The  same  fac 
tions  which  formerly  distracted  the  nation  were  revived,  and 
exerted  themselves  in  the  most  ungenerous  and  unmanly  en 
terprises  against  each  other. "f 

10.  The  parliamentary  party  in  England  ostentatiously 
contemned  all  human  learning,  and  were  wholly  indifferent 
to  the  object  of  general  education.  The  American  colonists 
had  scarcely  opened  the  forests,  and  constructed  habitations, 
when  they,  bent  their  attention  to  that  object.  As  early  as  1637, 
only  a  few  years  after  the  landing  at  Plymouth, — the  legisla 
ture  of  Massachusetts  founded  and  endowed,  for  the  ancient 
languages,  and  higher  branches  of  learning, — a  college,  which 
began  to  confer  degrees  in  1642;  and  has  since  ripened  into 
an  university  of  the  first  class  both  in  extent  and  usefulness. 
To  this  institution,  the  plantations  of  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven,  as  long  as  they  remained  unable  to  support  a  similar  one 
at  home,  contributed  funds  from  their  public  purse,  and  sent 
such  of  their  youth  as  they  wished  to  be  thoroughly  educated.^: 

*  Ibid.  chap.  Ixxi. 

f  Ibid. 

t  "  The  Rev  W.  Sheppard  wrote,  in  1644,  to  the  commissioners  of 
the  united  colonies  of  New  England,  representing  the  necessity  of 
further  assistance  for  the  support  of  scholars  at  Cambridge,  whose  pa 
rents  were  needy,  and  desired  them  to  encourage  a  general  contribu 
tion  through  the  colonies.  The  commissioners  approved  the  motion  ; 


68  CHARACTER   AND    MERITS 

PART  i.  It  seems  almost  incredible,  how  much  was  accomplished  in  this 
•^~v-^>  way,  «i  the  very  formation  of  the  settlements.  On  the  death  of  the 
firs*  literary  emigrants,  natives  of  Massachusetts,  taught  in  the 
province,  were  qualified  to  fill  the  void;  and  not  a  few  of  the 
/irst  alumni  of  Harvard  College  attained  to  considerable  lite 
rary  and  political  distinction  in  the  mother  country.  But  what 
is  chiefly  remarkable,  is  the  provision  made  for  the  education  of 
the  body  of  the  people,  then  and  in  all  future  time.  As'a  spe 
cimen  of  the  arrangements  common  to  the  New  England 
colonies,  I  will  state  those  of  Connecticut  By  her  first  code 
of  1639,  every  town,  consisting  of  fifty  families,  was  obliged 
by  the  laws,  to  maintain  a  good  school,  in  which  reading  and 
writing  should  be  well  taught ;  and  in  every  country  town  a 
good  grammar  school  was  instituted.  Large  tracts  of  land 
were  given  and  appropriated  by  the  legislature,  to  afford  them 
a  permanent  support.  The  select  men  of  every  town  were 
obliged  by  law  to  take  care  that  all  the  heads  of  families 
should  instruct  their  children  and  servants  to  read  the  English 
tongue  well. 

We  have  read  a  very  eloquent  speech  of  Mr.  Brougham, 
on  the  Education  of  the  Poor,  pronounced  in  the  British  House 
of  Commons  (May,  1818,)  in  which  he  lavishes  compli 
ments  and  congratulations  upon  Scotland,  for  her  system  of 
parish  schools.  He  declares,  that  the  attention  which  she  had 
bestowed,  in  early  times,  upon  the  subject  of  national  educa 
tion,  reflected  immortal  honour  upon  her  inhabitants,  and  that 
it  had  given  them  the  most  enviable  characteristics,  as  well 
as  the  happiest  fortunes.  It  was  only,  however,  as  he  correctly 
states,  in  1696,  that  the  scheme  of  extending  the  means  of 
instruction  to  the  poorer  classes,  was  rendered  effectual,  by 
what  he  styles  u  one  of  the  last  and  best  acts  of  the  Scottish 
Parliament," — "  a  law  justly  named  among  the  most  precious 
legacies  which  it  bequeathed  to  its  country."  If  the  merit  and 
the  felicity  of  Scotland  on  this  score,be  so  great,  how  is  not  New 
England  exalted  and  blessed! — where,  in  the  midst  of  dan 
gers  and  labours  the  most  arduous  in  which  a  community  of 
men  could  be  involved,  the  system  so  justly  commended  by 
the  British  orator,  was  earlier,  and  has  been,  I  can  venture  to 
assert,  more  uniformly  and  completely,  carried  into  effect. 

and,  for  the  encouragement  of  literature,  recommended  it  to  the  ge 
neral  courts  in  the  respective  colonies,  to  take  it  into  their  considera 
tion,  and  to  give  it  general  encouragement.  The  general  courts  adopt 
ed  the  recommendation,  and  contributions  of  grain  and  provisions 
were  annually  made,  throughout  the  united  colonies,  for  the  charitable 
end  proposed." — Trumbull's  Hist,  of  Con.  vol.  i.  ch.  viii. 


OP   THE    COLONISTS.  69 

The  outcasts  of  England,  in  the  first  part  of  the  seven-  SECT.  n. 
teenth  century,  brought  hither  with  them,  that  sense  of  the  v^-v-^/ 
importance  and  beauty  of  national  education,  which  their 
descendants  have  constantly  cherished,  and  to  which  England 
herself,  with  all  her  boasted  illumination,  is,  now  only  and  re 
luctantly,  come.  It  is  but  lately,  that  her  government  and  her 
politicians  regarded  and  treated  the  universal  diffusion  of 
knowledge, — the  instruction  of  the  lower  classes,  particularly 
— as  a  critical,  not  to  say  pernicious  theory.  "  About  eleven 
years  ago,"  said  Mr.  Brougham,  in  the  speech  to  which  I 
have  referred,  "  Mr.  Whitbread  broached  the  subject  of  the 
education  of  the  poor.  His  benevolent  views  met  with  great 
opposition.  He  had  strong  prejudices  to  encounter  even  in 
men  of  high  character  and  talents.  It  is  melancholy  and  even 
humiliating  to  reflect  that  Mr.  Wyndham,  himself  the  model 
of  a  finely  educated  man,  should  have  stood  forward  as  the 
active  opponent  of  national  education.  He  was  followed  by 
persons  who,  with  the  servile  zeal  of  imitators,  outstripped  their 
master,  and  maintained,  that  if  you  taught  ploughmen  and  me 
chanics  to  read,  they  would  thenceforward  disdain  to  work."* 

11.  In  partitioning  the  vast  region  of  North  America,  among 
mercantile  companies  and  rapacious  courtiers,  the  monarchs 
of  England,  were  wholly  unmindful  of  the  interests  of  the 
aborigines.  The  soil  was  granted,  as  though  the  Indians  had 
no  claim  or  want,  distinct  from  those  of  the  wild  beast;  and 
if  the  settlers  had  placed  them  on  the  same  footing,  expelled 
them  alike  from  their  lairs,  and  hunted  them  together  to  de 
struction,  they  might  have  pleaded  the  tacit  warrant  of  the 
mother  country.  But  they  acted  in  a  very  different  spirit  from 
that  in  which  the  royal  patents  were  framed: — they  purchased 
with  their  own  estates,  the  supposed  title  of  the  natives.  Al 
most  every  foot  of  territory  occupied  by  the  whites  in  New 
England,  at  the  distance  of  many  years  from  the  formation 
of  their  communities,  and  until  wars  of  extermination  were 
commenced  against  them  by  the  Indians,  was  thus  acquired. 
Abundant  and  well  merited  honour  has  been  paid  to  Penn,  for 
his  conscientious  dealings  in  this  respect.  As  much  is  due. 

*  "Nobody  can  have  forgotten  the  murmurs  and  dissonant  clamours, 
with  which  the  first  proposal  for  communicating  the  blessings  of  edu 
cation  to  the  great  body  of  the  people  was  lately  received." — Edin 
burgh  Review,  1814. 

"  We  well  remember,  when  all  attempts  to  educate  the  lower  classes, 
were  at  once  clamoured  down  by  the  real  or  pretended  apprehensions, 
that  such  education  would  disturb  the  order  of  society,  and  would  only 
render  the  poor  discontented  and  impatient." — Bell's  Weekly  Messen 
ger,  December,  1818 


"70  CHARACTER   AND    MEKITS 

PARTI,  however,  to  the  founders  of  the  New  England  colonies;  to 
^-v-^'  those  of  Maryland,  New  Jersey,  and  North  Carolina.  The 
Plymouth  colony  in  1621,  and  that  of  Massachusetts  in  1629; 
in  1633,  Calvert  and  his  band  of  Roman  Catholics,  and  Rogsr 
Williams  and  his  associates,  in  1634,  set  the  example  of  that 
Christian  course,  which  is  so  properly  admired  and  extolled  in 
Penn.  "  To  lay  a  foundation  for  a  firm  and  lasting  friend 
ship,"  says  Dummer,  after  the  historians,  "  they  called  as 
semblies  of  the  Indians,  to  enquire  who  had  a  right  to  dis 
pose  of  their  lands,  and  being  told  that  it  was  their  sacherns 
or  princes,  they  thereupon  agreed  with  them  for  what  districts 
they  bought,  publicly,  and  in^  open  market."  It  became, 
finally,  in  all  the  settlements  undertaken  by  the  great  proprie 
tors,  a  fundamental  principle,  that  territory  was  to  be  purchas 
ed  from  the  aborigines;  and  this  principle  did  not  spring  from 
the  plantation  office  at  Whitehall,  but  was  rendered  necessary 
to  the  interests  of  the  proprietors  by  the  example  just  men 
tioned,  and  the  dispositions  of  the  settlers. 

The  civilization  and  conversion  of  the  Indians  early  shared 
the  attention  and  the  resources  of  the  middle  and  northern  co 
lonists,  and  of  the  southern  planters  also,  though  in  a  less  de 
gree.^  In  1646,  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts  passed 
an  act  to  encourage  the  propagation  of  the  gospel  among  the 
natives,  and  associations  of  clergymen  were  formed  for  the 
purpose,  under  its  auspices.  The  work  was  then  prosecuted 
with  apostolical  ardour  and  devotion, — upon  the  true  maxim 
in  the  case — that  "  the  Indians  must  be  civilized,  in  order  to 
being  christianized."  The  attention  of  the  English  nation 
was  not  excited  to  the  subject,  until  accounts  were  published 
in  England,  of  the  remarkable  progress  of  the  New  England 
missionaries.  In  1649,  Winslow,  the  agent  of  the  united 
colonies,  at  the  British  court,  extorted  from  the  parliament, 
by  pressing  instances  and  glowing  exhortations,  an  act,  which 
incorporated  a  society  for  the  benefit  of  the  "  poor  heathens," 
and  which  recommended  to  the  good  people  of  England  and 
Wales  to  contribute  to  its  pious  objects  by  a  general  collection., 
inasmuch  as  the  "New  England  people  had  exhausted  their 
estates  in  laying  the  foundations  of  many  hopeful  towns  and 
colonies  in  a  desolate  wilderness." 


*  See  Bummer's  Befence  of  the  Charters:  and  Bark's  History  oi 
Virginia,  vol.  ii.  ch.  ii.  The  regulations  of  the  assembly  of  Virginia,  in 
1654,  were  replete  with  humanity  as  well  as  good  sense.  Here,  as  well 
as  in  New  England,  to  preserve  the  Indians  from  being  overreached, 
all  persons  were  forbidden  to  purchase  land  from  them,  without  the  ap 
probation  of  the  assembly. 


OF   THE    COLONISTS.  71 

Although  letters  were  published  besides,  at  the  solicitation  SECT.  n. 
of  the  American  agents,  from  the  two  universities  of  Oxford  ^-^~v-^> 
and  Cambridge,  calling  upon  the  ministers  of  Britain  to  stir  up 
their  congregations  to  the  promotion  of  so  glorious  an  under 
taking,  yet,  according  to  Hutchinson,  great  opposition  was 
expressed  to  the  collection  in  England;  and  it  went  on  so 
slowly  that  an  attempt  was  made  to  raise  a  sum  out  of  the 
army.*  This,  too,  yielded  but  a  poor  harvest.  The  evangeli 
cal  charity  of  England  and  Wales  kindled,  however,  as  the 
fame  of  the  New  England  missions  increased,  and  at  length, 
on  the  accession  of  Charles  II.,  the  society,  incorporated  in 
1649,  found  itself  in  possession  of  six  or  seven  hundred  pounds 
a  year.  But  as  this  income  arose  out  of  an  act  of  the  Common- 
wealth-purliamentt  it  was  in  danger  of  being  confiscated  by  the 
crown,  and  was  saved  at  last,  only  through  the  interest  which 
some  of  the  patrons  of  the  institution  happened  to  possess  at 
court.  This  fund  was  committed  to  some  of  the  old  magistrates 
and  ministers  of  New  England,  and  the  historians  concur  in  the 
allegation,  that  never  was  one  of  the  nature  more  faithfully  ap 
plied.  Notwithstanding,  it  was  near  being  wrested  from  them, 
in  the  time  of  James  II.,  and  transferred  to  much  less  scrupu 
lous  custody,  by  authority  of  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

Meantime  the  assemblies  of  New  England  allotted  tracts 
of  land  to  such  Indians  as  were  likely  to  become  Christians; 
supplied  them  with  building  materials  and  household  utensils; 
and  assisted  in  every  way,  the  unremitting  efforts  of  the  mis 
sionary  societies.     The  bible  was  translated  into  the  language 
of  the  natives,  and  published  in  1661.   Schools  were  opened  in 
the  Indian  settlements;  the  children  taught  to  read;  and  such  of 
these  as  displayed  capacity,  placed  in  the  grammar  schools  of 
the  colonists,  and  even  at  the  university  of  Cambridge.     To 
furnish  some  idea  of  what  was  accomplished,  I  will  extract 
one  or  two  short  passages  on  the  subject,  from  Hutchinson. 
"  In  1660,  there  were  ten  Indian  towns  of  such  as  were  called 
"  Praying  Indians,  in  Massachusetts. — In  1687,  as  appears  by 
"  a  letter  of  Dr.  Increase  Mather,  there  were  four  Indian  as- 
"  semblies  in  that  province,  besides  the  principal  church  at 
"  Natick..     In  Plymouth,  besides  the  principal  church   at 
"  Mashpee,  there  were  five  assemblies  in  that  vicinity,  and  a 
<c  large  congregation  at  Saconet.  There  were  also  six  different 
"  societies,  probably  but  small,  with  an  Indian  teacher  to  each, 
"  between  the  last  mentioned  and  Cape  Cod;  one  church  at 
"  Nantucket,  and  three  at  Martha's  Vineyard.     There  were 
"  in  all  six  assemblies  formed  into  a  church  state,  having  offi- 

*  Vol.  i.  chap.  i. 


72  CHARACTER   AND    MERITS 

PART  I.  "  cers,  and  the  ordinances  duly  administered,  and  sixteen  as- 
v^-v-^*'  "  semblies  which  met  together  for  (he  worship  of  God."* 

On  these  heads,  of  the  occupation  of  the  soil  and  the  treat 
ment  of  the  Indians — our  forefathers  have  the  good  fortune  to 
be  defended  in  the  two  works,  to  which  the  defamation  of  the 
American  character  may  be  said  to  have  been  specially  allot 
ted:  I  mean  the  Annals  of  Chalmers  and  the  Quarterly  Review. 
There  is  so  much  solidity,  and,  what  is  still  more  rare,  so 
much  liberality,  in  their  observations,  that  I  may  be  excused 
for  transcribing  them  at  length. 

"  Man,"  says  Chalmers,  "  having  a  right  to  the  world  from  the  gift  of 
the  beneficent  Creator,  must  possess  and  use  the  general  estate  ac 
cording  to  the  grant,  which  commanded  him  to  multiply  and  to  subsist 
by  labour:  and  little  would  the  earth  have  been  peopled  or  cultivated, 
had  men  continued  to  live  by  hunting  or  fishing,  or  the  mere  produc 
tions  of  nature.  The  roving  of  the  erratic  tribes  over  wide  extended 
deserts,  does  not  form  a  possession  which  excludes  the  subsequent  oc 
cupancy  of  emigrants  from  countries  overstocked  with  inhabitants. 
The  paucity  of  their  numbers,  and  their  mode  of  life,  render  them 
unable  to  fulfil  the  great  purposes  of  the  grant.  Consistent,  therefore, 
with  the  great  charter  to  mankind,  they  may  be  confined  within  certain 
limits.  Their  rights  to  the  privileges  of  men,  nevertheless,  continue 
the  same.  And  the  colonists,  who  conciliated  the  affections  of  the 
aborigines,  and  gave  a  consideration  for  their  territoiy,  have  acquired 
the  praise  due  to  humanity  and  justice."! 

"  As  for  the  usurpation  of  territory  from  the  natives,  by  the  Ameri 
can  states,  he  must  be,"  says  the  Quarterly  Review,i  "  a  feeble  moralist, 
who  regards  that  as  an  evil:  the  same  principle  upon  which  that  usur 
pation  is  condemned,  would  lead  to  the  nonsensical  opinion  of  the  Bra- 
mins,  that  agriculture  is  an  unrighteous  employment,  because  worms 
must  sometimes  be  cut  by  the  ploughshare  and  the  spade.  It  is  the 
order  of  nature,  that  beasts  should  give  place  to  man,  and  among  men 
the  savage  to" the  civilized  ;  and  no  where  has  this  order  been  carried 
into  effect  with  so  little  violence  as  in  North  America.  Sir  Thomas 
Moore  admits  jt  to  be  a  justifiable  cause  of  war,  even  in  Utopia,  if  a 
people,  who  have  territory  to  spare,  will  not  cede  it  to  those  who  are 
in  want  of  room.  The  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  have  proved  the  prac 
ticability  of  a  more  perfect  system  than  he  had  imagined,  and  the  treaty 
which  the  excellent  founder  of  the  province  made  with  the  Indians, 
has  never  been  broken.  If  the  conduct  of  the  other  states  towards  the 
natives  be  fairly  examined,  there  will  be  found  a  great  aggregate  of  in 
dividual  wickedness  on  the  part  of  the  traders  and  back-settlers,  but 
little  which  can  be  considered  as  national  guilt.  They  have  never  been 
divided  among  the  colonists  like  cerfs ;  they  have  never  been  consumed 
in  mines  nor  in  indigo  works;  they  have  never  been  hunted  down  for 
slaves,  nor  has  war  ever  been  made  upon  them  for  the  purptse  of  con 
quest,  though  the  infernal  cruelties  which  they  exercise  upon  theii 
prisoners  might  excuse  and  almost  justify  a  war  of  extermination." 

*  For  the  evangelical  labours  generally  of  the  Anglo-Americans  among 
the  Indians,  see  the  first  volume  of  a  late  English  work,  entitled,  "His 
tory  of  the  Propagation  of  Christianity  among  the  Heathen,  since  the 
Reformation,  by  the  Rev.  William  Brown." — 2  vols.  London.  See,  also, 
1st  vol.  Mass.  Hist.  Collections,  for  an  ample  account,  by  Daniel  Gookiii. 
general  superintendant  of  all  the  Indians,  &c.  (1764.) 
t  Book  I.  i  No.  4. 


OF    THE    COLONISTS. 


73 


12. — The  physical  economy  of  the  settlements  kept  pace  SECT.n. 
with  the  moral,  and  is  not  less  the  subject  of  admiration  with  ^^^^ 
a  few  of  the  more  liberal  among  the  English  writers.  Of  this 
description  are  the  authors  of  the  Modern  Universal  History, 
whose  account  of  the  North  American  Colonies  is  among  the 
best  parts  of  their  useful  work.  In  tracing  the  early  progress  of 
Pennsylvania,  they  dwell  with  complacency  upon  u  the  stu 
pendous  prosperity  of  a  commonwealth  so  lately  planted,  and 
so  flourishing  by  pacific  measures."  When  they  have  brought 
the  history  of  New  England  down  to  the  treaty  of  Utrecht, 
(1713,)  they  speak  thus  of  her  condition. 

"  The  inhabitants  of  New  England,  at  the  peace  of  Utrecht, 
to  their  native  love  of  liberty,  added  now  the  polite  arts  of 
life;  industry  was  embellished  by  elegance;  and  what  would 
be  hardly  credible  in  anticnt  Greece  and  Rome,  in  less  than 
fourscore  years,  a  colony  almost  unassisted  by  its  mother  country, 
arose  in  the  wilds  of  America,  that  if  transplanted  to  Europe, 
and  rendered  an  independent  government,  would  have  made 
no  mean  figure  amidst  her  sovereign  states."* 

If  we  ascend  with  the  same  accurate  reporters  to  an  earlier 
period  in  the  career  of  the  people  of  New  England,  we  shall 
be  no  less  edified. 

"  In  1642,  the  number  of  English  capable  to  bear  arms 
in  New  England,  were  computed  to  be  between  7  or  8000. 
At  this  time  50  towns  and  villages  were  planted,  above  40 
ministers  had  houses,  and  public  works  of  all  kinds  were 
erected  at  public  expense.  All  this  could  not  have  beeeji  done 
but  through  the  almost  incredible  industry  of  the  inhabitants, 
which  had  by  this  time  rendered  their  country  a  near  resem 
blance  of  England.  Fields  were  hedged  in;  gardens,  orchards, 
meadows,  and  pasture  grounds  were  laid  out,  and  all  the  im 
provements  of  husbandry  took  place,  particularly  the  sowing 
of  corn  and  feeding  of  cattle.  As  to  the  commercial  part  of 
the  inhabitants,  they  shipped  off  vast  quantities  of  fish  for 
Portugal,  and  the  Straits;  besides  supplying  other  places; 
England  particularly,  Scotland  and  Ireland.  They  exported 
bread  and  beef  to  the  sugar  islands,  with  oil  and  lumber  of 
all  kinds,  some  of  which  they  sent  to  the  mother  country; 
and  what  is  still  more  surprising,  they  carried  on  «  great  trade 
in  ship  building."! 

Some  of  the  features  in  the  physical  condition  of  the  Colo 
nies,  noted  in  the  Official  Reports,  which  were  made  on  the 
subject,  to  Charles  II.  must  have  excited  either  incredulity  or 

*  Vol.xxxix.  |  Ibid. 

VOL.  I.— K 


74  CHARACTER   AND   MERITS,   &C. 

PART  I.  envy  in  his  disquiet  council.  "  We  leave  every  man,"  said  the 
\^~Y^*S  Governor  of  Rhode  Island,  "  to  walk  in  religion  as  God  shaft 
persuade  his  heart;  and  as  for  beggars  and  vagabonds,  we 
have  none  among  us."  "  The  worst  cottages  of  New  Eng 
land,"  said  another  inspector,  "  are  lofted:  there  are  no  beg 
gars,  and  not  three  persons  are  put  to  death  annually  for  civil 
offences."  This  representation  would  have  been  equally  true 
of  the  middle  colonies.  I  will  not  place  by  the  side  of  it  the 
cotemporary  condition  of  Ireland,  under  the  immediate  domi 
nion  of  Britain,  when  the  spectacle  of  what  exists  there  at 
the  present  day  is  too  hideous  to  be  endured  by  the  imagina 
tion.  But  it  may  be  well  to  furnish  a  trifling  specimen  of  the 
state  of  some  of  the  agricultural  districts  of  England;  and  this 
shall  be  drawn  from  the  journal  of  the  faithful  Evelyn. 

"  August  2,  1664. — Went  to  Uppingham,  the  shire  town 
of  Rutland;  pretty,  and  well  built  of  stone,  which  is  a  rarity 
in  that  part  of  England,  where  most  of  the  rural  villages  are 
built  of  mud,  and  the  people  living  as  wretchedly  as  the  most 
impoverished  parts  of  France,  which  they  much  resemble, 
being  idle  and  sluttish.  The  country  (especially  Leicester 
shire)  much  in  common;  the  gentry  free  drinkers." 

"  August  14,  1664. — Lay  at  Nottingham.  Here  I  ob 
served  divers  to  live  in  the  rocks  and  caves,"  &c.* 

*  Memoirs,  vol.  i. 


75 


SECTION  III. 


OF  THE  DIFFICULTIES  SURMOUNTED  BY  THE  COLONISTS. 

1.  THE  cheering  scene  which  the  provinces  thus  exhi-  SECT.  III. 
bited  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century;  the  maturity  v«^v^-' 
and  stability  of  their  institutions;  the  sedateness,  humanity, 
and  piety,  of  their  character,  are  rendered  the  more  creditable 
and  remarkable,  by  the  disadvantages  and  difficulties  of  vari 
ous  kinds  with  which  they  had  to  contend.  It  may  be  said  of 
them,  without  exaggeration,  that  they  were  the  associations  of 
men, — of  all  that  have  existed  of  civilized  origin, — in  whom  a 
backwardness  in  the  arrangements  and  improvements  which 
constitute  the  dignity  and  comfort  of  social  life;  a  total  neglect 
of  the  higher  arts  of  civilization,  and  the  pursuits  of  philan 
thropy;  a  fierce,  relentless,  and  even  ruthless  character,  would 
have  been  most  natural  and  excusable.  It  was  their  pe 
culiar  lot,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  to  clear  and  cultivate 
a  wilderness;  to  erect  habitations  and  procure  sustenance;  to 
struggle  with  a  new  and  rigorous  climate;  to  bear  up  against 
all  the  bitter  recollections  inseparable  from  distant  and  lonely 
exile;  to  defend  their  liberties  from  the  jealous  tyranny  and 
bigotry  of  the  mother  country;  to  be  perpetually  assailed  by  a 
savage  foe,  u  the  most  subtle  and  the  most  formidable  of  any 
people  on  the  face  of  the  earth"* — a  foe  that  made  war  the 
main  business  of  life,  and  waged  it  with  forms  and  barbarities 
unknown  to  the  experience,  and  superlatively  terrible  to  the 
imagination,  of  a  European. 

The  general  situation  of  the  first  emigrants  in  the  midst  of 
a  wilderness,  and  surrounded  by  an  enemy  of  this  description, 
can  be  imaged  without  difficulty,  and  does  not  require  to  be 
described  for  those  to  whom  our  common  histories  are  familiar. 
The  pictures  drawn  therein  have  been  realized  in  part  before 
our  eyes,  in  the  settlement  of  our  western  wilds.  I  say  in 
part,  because,  although  the  immediate  labours  and  dangers  may 
have  been,  in  some  of  the  modern  instances,  as  great,  yet,  the 
distressing,  paralyzing  influences  for  the  mind,  the  duration  of 

*  Colonel  Barre,  in  the  House  of  Commons. 


70  DIFFICULTIES    SURMOUNTED 

PART  I.  the  principal  ills,  and  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  ultimate 
^•"-v-^^  success,  appear  much  less  in  the  comparison.  The  Annals  of 
Chalmers,  Stith's  History  of  Virginia,  and  TrumbulPs  Con 
necticut,  furnish  a  particularly  striking  and  full  detail  of  those 
circumstances  of  original  adversity  common  to  most  of  the 
colonies,  which  justify  any  warmth  of  encomuim  on  their 
fortitude,  or  of  admiration  at  their  progress.  Well  might 
Lord  Chatham  exclaim,  in  1774,  "viewing  our  fellow  sub 
jects  in  America,  in  their  original  forlorn,  and  now  flour 
ishing  state,  they  may  be  cited  as  illustrious  instances  to  in 
struct  the  world — what  great  exertions  mankind  will  make, 
when  left  to  the  free  exercise  of  their  own  powers."  Hav- 
ang  before  me  the  accounts  of  the  historians  just  mentioned, 
and  present  to  my  mind  the  various  obstacles  upon  which 
I  am  about  to  touch,  I  am  filled  with  new  wonder  at  the  re 
sults  sketched  in  my  last  section.  I  feel  with  additional 
force,  the  justice  of  the  beautiful  commemoration,  which 
the  contemplation  of  them  drew  from  Mr.  Burke,  in  1764, 
and  which  that  bright  intelligence  uttered,  not  merely  as  an 
orator  ambitious  of  the  meed  of  eloquence,  but  as  a  philoso 
pher  attentive  to  the  ordinary  march  of  human  affairs,  and 
the  ordinary  efficacy  of  human  powers.  "  Nothing  in  the 
history  of  mankind,"  said  he,  u  is  like  the  progress  of  the 
American  Colonies.  For  my  part,  I  never  cast  an  eye  on 
their  flourishing  commerce,  and  their  cultivated  and  commo 
dious  life,  but  they  seem  to  me  rather  antient  nations  grown 
to  perfection  through  a  long  series  of  fortunate  events,  and  a 
train  of  successful  industry,  accumulating  wealth  in  many 
centuries,  than  the  colonies  of  yesterday;  than  a  set  of  miser 
able  outcasts,  a  few  years  ago,  not  so  much  sent  as  thrown 
out,  on  the  bleak  and  barren  shore  of  a  desolate  wilderness, 
three  thousand  miles  from  all  civilized  intercourse."* 

2.  It  is  conceded  by  the  historians  of  every  party,  that  as 
far  as  the  mother  country  was  able,  in  the  confusion  of  hei 
domestic  affairs,  or  condescended,  in  the  plenitude  of  hei 
greatness,  to  bend  her  atUnlion  to  the  colonies,  she  pursued 
towards  them  until  the  revolution  of  1668  at  least,  a  course 
of  direct  oppression.  The  administration  of  the  chartered 
companies,  of  the  proprietary  governors  in  general,  and  of  the 
councils  and  executive  representatives  of  the  Stuarts,  is  ac 
knowledged  on  all  hands,  to  have  been  burdensome  and  mis 
chievous,  f  So  far  from  promoting,  it  tended  to  impede  the 


*  Speech  on  American  Taxation. 
f  See  particularly  Chalmers — passim. 


BY   THE    COLONISTS. 


77 


growth,  and  break  the  spirit  of  the  plantations.  It  was  not,  SECT. III. 
therefore,  by  favour,  but  in  spite  of  their  political  connexion  v^^v-^^ 
with  Great  Britain,  that  they  preserved  their  liberties,  and 
became  what  they  were  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  condition  of  the  Carolinas,  of  New  York,  and  New  Jer 
sey,  under  the  proprietary  rule, — of  Virginia  in  the  hands  of  the 
London  company,  and  of  the  Stuart  governors, — of  this  pro 
vince  and  Maryland,  when  in  the  gripe  of  the  Common 
wealth, — of  New  Hampshire  in  that  of  Mason's  agents,  and 
of  New  England  at  large  during  the  vice-royalty  of  Andros, — 
are  sufficiently  known  to  all  who  have  read  our  annals. 

As  soon  as  the  long  parliament  was  settled,  it  manifested 
a  determination  to  assert  and  exercise  an  unlimited  authority 
in  the  colonies;  and  by  its  act  of  navigation,  and  other  regu 
lations  conceived  in  the  same  spirit,  threw  over  them  a  set  of 
fetters  which  did  not  cripple  them  entirely,  only  because  they 
were  loosely  worn,  and  sometimes  laid  aside  altogether,  in 
defiance  of  the  peering  jealousy  of  the  metropolitan  govern 
ment.     The  community  of  religious  opinion, — the  great  bond 
of  union  in  those  days — and   a  marked  predilection  for  the 
cause  of  the  Parliament,  obtained  for  New  England,  no  real 
concession  or  substantial  favour — no  legal  exemption  from  the 
navigation  act.     She  escaped  its  full  pressure,  not  by  the  par 
tiality  of  Cromwell,  as  has  been  asserted,  but  by  her  own 
sturdy  resolution  to  be  free.     Chalmers  relates,  in  an  angry 
tone,  that  she  foiled  the  Parliament,  and  outwitted  the  Pro 
tector,  whom,  in  fact,  while  she  addressed  him  in  terms  of 
obeisance,  she  always  cautiously  avoided  to  acknowledge  in 
form.      Virginia  refused   to  receive  the  navigation   act   of 
1661,  and  was  liable  by  her  devotion  to  the  royal  side,  to  the 
particular  displeasure  of  the  Commonwealth:    But  we  may 
cite,  as  a  sample  of  the  prevailing  temper  of  mind  in  Eng 
land,  with  regard  to  all  the  colonies,  the  instruction  given  to 
the  fleet,  which  the  parliament  despatched  for  the  reduction 
of  that  province,  "  to  employ  every  act  of  hostility"  in  case 
of  refractoriness — "  to  set  free  such  servants  and  slaves  of 
masters  who  should  oppose  the  parliamentary  government,  as 
would  serve  as  soldiers  to  subdue  them"* — a  parental  expe 
dient,  shewing  the  antiquity  of  the  feeling,  which  prompted 
the  observation  of  Governor  Littleton  in  the  debate  of  the 
British  Parliament  of  the  26th  of  October,  1775— "  that  if  a 
few  regiments  were  sent  to  the  southern  colonies  of  America, 
the  negroes  would  rise  and  embrue  their  hands  in  the  blood  of 
their  masters." 

*  Chalmers,  c.  v.  Annals. 


DIFFICULTIES    SURMOUNTED 

PART  I.  The  courageous  loyalty  of  Virginia,  although  acknowledged 
v^-v-^'  and  applauded  on  the  restoration,  turned  still  less  to  her  ad 
vantage  than  the  republicanism  of  New  England.  A  scheme 
of  restriction,  and  a  train  of  measures,  more  prejudicial  and 
galling  than  those  of  Cromwell,  were  pursued  by  Charles  II. 
and  his  successor,  towards  those  who  boasted  with  truth  "  that 
they  were  the  last  of  the  King's  subjects  who  renounced,  and  the 
first  who  resumed  their  allegiance."  "  With  the  restoration," 
says  Chalmers,  "  began  a  series  of  evils  which  long  afflicted, 
and  well  nigh  ruined  the  plantation  of  Virginia."  One  of 
these  evils  was,  the  distribution  among  certain  favourite  ad 
herents  of  Charles  II.  in  England,  of  a  large  portion  of  the 
soil,  including  cultivated  estates,  held  by  every  right  which 
could  vest  indefeasible  property.  "  Virginia,"  says  the  writer 
whom  I  have  just  quoted,  "  beheld  the  Northern  JVecfc,  con 
taining  one  half  of  the  whole,  given  away  to  strangers,  who 
had  shared  neither  the  danger  nor  expenses  of  the  original 
settlement."* 

A  spoliation  no  less  iniquitous  was  attempted,  and  partly 
accomplished  by  Andros,  in  1688,  in  New  England.    There, 
on   the  lawless  abolition  of  all   the  charters,  a  declaration 
followed,    that  the  titles  of  the  colonists  to  their  lands  had 
become  void  in  consequence.     By  this  monstrous  fiction  of 
tyranny,  the  oldest  proprietors  were  summoned  to  take  out, 
at  a  heavy  cost,  new  patents  for  estates  acquired   by  pur 
chase  from  the  Indians;  possessed  for  near  sixty  years;  de 
fended  against  the    inroads  of  a  barbarous    enemy,   at  the 
hazard  of  life,  and  improved   with   incessant  toil  and  im 
mense  expense.    Hutchinson  remarks,!  that  according  to  the 
computation  then  made,  all  the  personal  estate  of  Massachu 
setts  would  not  have  paid  the  charge  of  the  new  patents  re 
quired  in  that  colony.     A  scheme  of  despotism  and  rapine  s© 
exorbitant,   could  not  be  long  prosecuted   with  a  people  that 
had  made  such  sacrifices  for  freedom,  and  had  lost  nothing  of 
their    pristine  fervor.       It   was  quickly   terminated   by  the 
popular  insurrection  at  Boston,  already  noticed,  which  deposed 
all  its  abettors,  and  extinguished  the  government  of  James  in 
New  England. — What  is  called  the  rebellion  of  Bacon,  in  the 
annals  of  Virginia,  sprung  from  grievances  of  equal  injustice, 
and  wanted,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  nothing  but  ultimate  suc 
cess,  to  make  it,  in  the  estimation  of  all,  equally  noble  with 
the  bold  and  characteristic  movement  of  Massachusetts. ;f 

*  Auiu.ls,  cli.  iv. 
j"  Vol.  i.  c.  iii. 

t  This  opinion  is  fully  sustained  by  Riirk's  narrative  of  Bacon's  rebel 
lion. — See  vol.  ii.  cli.  iv.  History  of  Virginia, 


BY    THE    COLONISTS.  79 

3.  All  the  thirteen  colonies,  with  the  exception  of  Georgia?  SECT.  TIL 
were  established  and  had  attained  to  considerable  strength,  v-^^-^-/ 
without  the  slightest  aid  from  the  treasury  of  the  mother  coun 
try.  Whatever  was  expended  in  the  acquisition  of  territory 
from  the  Indians,  proceeded  from  the  private  resources  of  the 
European  adventurers.  Neither  the  crown,  nor  the  parlia 
ment  of  England,  made  any  compensation  to  the  original  mas 
ters  of  the  soil,  or  could  lay  claim  to  a  share  in  the  creation  of 
the  rich  stock  and  fair  landscape,  which  so  soon  bore  testimony 
to  the  industry  and  intelligence  of  the  planters.  The  set 
tlement  of  the  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay  alone,  cost 
=£200,000 — an  enormous  sum  at  the  era  in  which  it  was  ef 
fected.  Lord  Baltimore  expended  =£40,000  for  his  contingent 
in  the  establishment  of  his  colony  in  Maryland:  on  that  of 
Virginia  immense  wealth  was  lavished;  and  we  are  told  by 
Trumbull,  that  the  first  planters  of  Connecticut  consumed  great 
estates  in  purchasing  lands  from  the  Indians,  and  making  set 
tlements,  in  that  province,  besides  large  sums  in  the  purchase 
of  their  patents,  and  the  right  of  pre-emption. 

Within  a  few  years  after  their  debarkation,  the  settlers  of 
Virginia,  of  New  England,  and  of  the  Carolinas,  were  assailed 
by  warlike  tribes,  decuple  their  number,  and  furiously  bent  on 
their  destruction.  But  the  government  of  the  mother  country 
extended  no  succour  to  them  in  these  contests;*  she  furnished 
neither  troops  nor  money;  built  no  fortifications;  entered  into 
no  negociations  for  them;  she  manifested  little  sympathy  or  in 
terest  in  the  fate  of  her  offspring.  The  sense  of  extreme  dan 
ger,  and  the  despair  of  aid  from  abroad,  gave  birth,  in  1643, 
in  New  England,  to  the  confederacy,  which  I  have  already 
noticed,  and  without  which,  in  all  probability,  the  colonies 
of  that  region  would  have  been  either  extirpated,  or  miserably 
crippled.  Some  of  the  most  considerable  of  the  Indian  wars 
were  immediately  brought  upon  them  by  the  rashness  and 
cupidity  of  the  royal  governors.  That,  for  instance,  which 
is  styled  king  William's  war, — memorable  in  the  annals  of 
New  Hampshire  particularly — was  owing  to  a  wanton,  pre- 

*  This,  and  the  facts  stated  in  the  preceding  paragraph,  were  ac 
knowledged  in  acts  of  parliament,  and  repeatedly  asserted  to  the  British 
government  by  the  colonists,  in  their  petitions,  before  as  well  as  dur 
ing  the  eighteenth  century.  Franklin  told  the  House  of  Commons,  in 
1766,  on  his  examination — "The  Americans  defended  themselves  when 
they  were  but  a  handful,  and  the  Indians  much  more  numerous.  They 
continually  gained  ground,  and  drove  the  Indians  over  the  mountains, 
without  any  troops  sent  to  their  assistance  from  Great  Britain."  The 
number  of  Indian  warriors  in  New  England  on  the  arrival  of  the  first 
settlers,  has  been  computed  at  eighteen  thousand. 


80  DIFFICULTIES    SURMOUNTED 

PART  I.  datory  expedition  of  Andros,  in  1688,  against  the  possessions 
^•~v-^>  of  a  French  individual,  situate  between  Penobscot  and  Nova 
Scotia. 

It  is  a  remarkable  trait  in  the  history  of  the  New  England 
settlers,  that  they  did  not  seek,  and  appear  to  have  been  even 
unwilling  to  receive,  assistance  from  the  mother  country. 
The  magnanimity  of  these  jealous  exiles  is  placed  in  full 
contrast  with  the  selfishness  of  the  British  Court,  by  the  letter 
of  reproof  for  their  backwardness  in  solicitation,  of  the  date 
of  1676,  from  the  earl  of  Anglesey,  which  Hutchinson  has 
copied  into  his  history.*  "I  received  your  letter,"  said  the 
royal  privy-councillor  to  the  governor  of  Massachusetts,  "  in 
timating  the  troubles  unexpectedly  brought  upon  you  by  the 
Indians.  I  must  chide  you,  and  that  whole  people  of  New 
England,  that  (as  if  you  were  independent  of  my  master's 
crown,  needed  not  his  protection,  or  had  deserved  ill  of  him. 
as  some  have  not  been  wanting  to  suggest,  and  use  testimony 
thereof,)  from  the  first  hour  of  God's  stretching  his  hanc 
against  you  to  this  time,  you  have  not  as  yet,  as  certainly  be 
came  you,  made  your  addresses  to  the  king's  majesty,  or  somt: 
of  his  ministers,  &c.  I  can  write  but  by  guess;  yet  it  is  not 
altogether  groundlessly  reported,  that  you  are  too  tenacious  oi 
what  is  necessary  for  your  preservation; — that  you  are  poor, 
and  yet  proud.  I  know  his  majesty  hath  power  sufficient  as 
well  as  will,  to  help  his  colonies  in  distress,  as  others  have 
experienced,  and  you  may  in  good  time.  He  can  send  ships 
to  help  you,  &c.  and  there  are  many  who  will  not  only  be  in 
tercessors  to  the  throne  of  grace,  but  to  Gotfs  vicegerent  also, 
if  you  are  not  wanting  to  yourselves,  and  failing  in  that  duti 
ful  applicatioD  which  subjects  ought  to  make  to  their  sove 
reigns  in  such  cases." 

Another  striking  illustration  of  the  comparative  dispositions 
of  the  parties,  is  afforded  in  the  fact,  which  we  have  upon 
the  authority  of  Hutchinson,! — that  the  collections  made  in 
the  colony  of  Massachusetts  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers  by 
the  great  fire  in  London,  and  on  other  occasions  of  foreign 
calamity,  at  least  equalled  the  whole  sum  bestowed  upon  her 
from  abroad,  from  the  first  settlement,  to  the  abrogation  of  her 
charter  by  James  II. 

While  the  people  of  New  England  were  providing  for  their 
own  safety, -with  consummate  judgment,  and  performing  pro 
digies  of  valour  in  innumerable  rencounters  with  the  enemy, 
they  had  not  even  the  consolation  of  escaping  the  reproach 

*  Vol.  i.  chap.  ii.  f  Ibid. 


BY  THE    COLONISTS.  81 

of  pusillanimity,  from  the  mother  country.  The  court  of  James  SECT.  in. 
II.  besides  withholding  assistance,  on  the  pretext  that  it  was  v^-v-^-' 
not  implored,  taxed  them  with  wanting  hearts  to  make  use  of 
their  means  of  defence.  A  part  of  the  nation  concurred  in 
this  injustice;  which,  even  at  this  distance  of  time,  causes  the 
breast  to  swell  with  indignation,  when  the  bold  expeditions 
of  these  colonists,  the  prodigal  effusion  of  their  blood,  and  the 
hardships  of  their  warfare,  are  passed  in  review.  This 
emotion  is  not  allayed,  as  we  read,  in  descending  through 
their  history,  that  on  the  occasion  of  the  bill,  introduced  into 
the  British  Parliament,  in  1715,  for  the  destruction  of  all  the 
charter  governments,  the  first  of  the  charges  brought  against 
them  was,  "  the  having  neglected  the  defence  of  the  inhabi 
tants  !"  To  convey  an  idea  of  the  severity  and  destructive- 
ness  of  the  hostilities  to  which  they  were  constantly  exposed, 
I  will  transcribe  from  the  Annals  of  Holmes,  the  summary 
which  he  makes,  of  the  evils  of  the  war  waged  by  the  New 
England  Confederacy,  in  1675,  with  Philip,  sachem  of  the 
Wampanoags.  "  In  this  short,  but  tremendous  war,  about 
six  hundred  of  the  inhabitants  of  New  England,  composing  its 
principal  strength,  were  either  killed  in  battle,  or  murdered  by 
the  enemy;  twelve  or  thirteen  towns  were  entirely  destroyed; 
and  about  six  hundred  buildings,  chiefly  dwelling  houses,  were 
burnt.  In  addition  to  these  calamities,  the  colonies  contracted 
an  enormous  debt." 

Hutchinsoj^states^that  the  accounts  which  were  transmitted 
to  England,  of  the  distresses  of  the  province  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  during  this  contest,  although  they  might  excite  compas 
sion  in  the  breasts  of  some,  yet  were  improved  by  others, 
to  render  the  colonies  more  obnoxious."*  In  fact,  in  the 
very  height  of  the  calamity — at  the  moment  when  New 
England  was  putting  forth  all  her  strength  for  the  retention  of 
the  soil, — the  merchants  and  manufacturers  of  the  mother 
country  were  clamorous,  and  the  committee  of  plantations 
tasked,  for  measures  of  rigour  against  her,  on  the  ground  that 
her  "  inhabitants  had  encouraged  foreigners  to  traffic  with 
them,  and  supplied  the  other  plantations  with  those  foreign 
productions  which  ought  only  to  have  been  sent  to  England." 
While  the  earth  was  yet  reeking  with  the  carnage  of  the  six 
hundred  brave  yeomen,  and  the  smoke  still  issued  from  the 
ruins  of  the  six  hundred  dwellings,  a  general  scheme  of  op 
pression  and  disfranchisement  was  projected  at  the  British 
Court.  It  prescribed,  without  delay,  that  no  Mediterranean 

*  Vol.i.  c.ii. 
VOL.  I.—L 


8  DIFFICULTIES    SURMOUNTED 

PART  i.  passes  should  be  granted  to  New  England,  to  protect  her  ves- 
^^v-^^  sels  against  the  Turks,  till  it  was  seen  what  dependence  she 
would  acknowledge  on  his  Britannic  majesty,  and  whether  his 
custom  houses  would  be  received." 

Most  of  the  colonies  had  to  subdue,  and  nearly  to  extermi 
nate,  in  the  outset,  fierce  and  populous  nations,  aiming,  within 
their  bosom,  at  their  utter  destruction.  Almost  every  indivi 
dual  of  the  settlers  became  a  soldier,  and  was  kept  perpetually 
on  the  alert:  the  musket  accompanied  the  plough,  and  the 
employment  of  these  may  be  said  to  have  been  unremittingly 
alternate.  It  is  not  too  much  to  affirm,  that  there  was  more 
of  military  effort  and  suffering  on  the  part  of  New  England, 
for  the  first  half  century  of  her  history,  than  among  any  equal 
number  of  the  civilized  inhabitants  of  Europe  within  the  same 
period.  The  colonists  did  not  merely  await,  and  repel  with 
great  slaughter,  the  assaults  of  their  indefatigable  enemy; 
but  they  marched  to  their  head  quarters,  attacked  them  in 
their  fortifications,  and  pursued  them  through  all  their  re 
cesses.  To  campaigns  of  wasting  hardship,  and  sanguinary 
strife,  were  added  general  massacres,  prepared  by  the  Jn- 
,  dians,  with  the  utmost  refinement  of  dissimulation,  during 
the  intervals  of  their  professed  submission.  We  are  told 
by  Dummer,  that,  in  his  time,  (1715,)  many  in  England, 
who  were  unable  to  deny  that  the  colonists  had  defended 
themselves,  without  being  burdensome  to  the  crown,  "en 
deavoured  to  depreciate  their  conquests,  as  gained  over  a  rude 
and  barbarous  people,  unexercised  to  arms."  The  general 
reply  of  the  eloquent  advocate,  on  this  head,  contains  a  true 
representation  of  the  case,  and  teaches  us  a  solemn  duty.  "  If 
"  it  be  considered,  that  the  New  England  forces  contended 
"  with  enemies  bloody  in  their  nature  and  superior  in  number, 
"  that  they  followed  them  in  deep  morasses;  that  the  assailants 
"  were  not  provided  with  cannon,  nor  could  approach  by 
"  trenches,  but  advanced  on  level  ground:  and  if  to  this  be 
"  added,  the  vast  fatigues  of  their  campaigns,  where  officers 
.  "  and  soldiers  lay  on  the  snow,  without  any  shelter  over  their 
"  heads,  in  the  most  rigorous  winters;  I  say,  if  a  just  conside- 
"  ration  be  had  of  these  things,  envy  itself  must  acknowledge 
u  that  their  enterprises  were  hardy  and  their  successes  glori- 
"  ous.  And  though  the  hrave  commanders  who  led  on  these 
ic  troops — and  most  of  them  died  in  the  bed  of  honour,  must 
"  not.  shine  in  the  British  annals^  yet  their  memory  ought  to 
a  be  sacred  m  their  own  country,  and  there  at  least  be  trans- 
"  mitted  to  the  latest  posterity."* 

*  Defence  of  the  Charters, 


BY   THE   COLONISTS.  83 

.  At  the  period  of  the  accession  of  William  to  the  British  SECT.  in. 
throne,  this  scourge  of  a  savage  foe  no  longer  existed  in  the  ^^^-^^ 
heart  of  the  settlements;   but  obstacles  to  civil  labour,  and 
causes  of  inordinate  mortality,  of  the  same  kind,  were  even 
multiplied.     From  the  year  1690,  to  the  peace  of  Paris,  in 
1763,  the  colonies,  from  New  Hampshire  to  Georgia,  were 
engaged  in  almost  unremitting  hostilities  with  the  aborigines 
on  their  borders.     Their  whole  western  frontier  was  a  scene 
of  havoc  and  desolation.  After  the  establishment  of  the  French  , 
at  Fort  Du  Quesne,  in  1754,  the  tribes  of  the  Ohio  assailed 
and  laid  waste  the  western  settlements  of  the  middle  provinces; 
and  it  is  calculated  that  the  colonies  lost  altogether  by  war, 
not  less  than  twenty  thousand  adults,  in  the  interval  from  that 
period  to  the  peace  of  1763. 

About  the  year  1690,  the  French  in  the  north,  and  the 
Spaniards  in  the  south,  began  to  act  as  the  instigators  and 
auxiliaries  of  the  savages,  and  continued  for  seventy-three 
years  to  be  the  instruments  of  infinite  distress  and  mischief 
to  the  Anglo-Americans.     Their  enmity  was  occasioned  by 
the  connexion  of  the  latter  with  Great  Britain;  and  their 
hostilities  arose  directly,  and  date  exactly,  from  her  quarrels 
with  France.      It  is   doubtful   whether,   if  that  connexion 
had  not  existed,  they  would  have  molested  their  neighbours. 
In  1644,  the  season  of  the  total  dereliction  of  the  British  pro 
vinces  by  the  mother  country,  a  formal  treaty  of  amity  was 
concluded  between  the  French  of  Acadie,  and  the  commis 
sioners  of  the  united  colonies  of  New  England.     The  French 
of  Canada  sent  an  agent,  in  1647,  to  solicit  aid  from  Massa 
chusetts  against  the  Mohawks;  which  was  refused  from  an  un 
willingness  to  assist  in  removing,  what  might  serve  as  a  barrier 
between  the  English  and  French  colonies,  in  case  of  a  rupture 
between  the  two  mother  countries.  A  year  after,  when  it  was 
proposed  by  New  England,  to  the  governor  and  council  of 
Canada,  that  the  parties  should  contract  an  engagement  to 
maintain  perpetual  peace,  whatever  might  be  the  relations  of 
the  parent  states,  the  French  entered  with  alacrity  into  a  ne 
gotiation  for  the  purpose.  It  failed  only  because  they  required 
the  English  colonists  to  aid  them  against  the  Iroquois;  and  they 
renewed  it  themselves  by  plenipotentiaries,  at  a  short  interval 
of  time,  without  success.*     These  facts  warrant  the  supposi 
tion,  that,  but  for  their  allegiance  to  the  British  crown,  the 
provinces  would  have  been  able  to  avert  the  animosities  which 
proved  their  severest  affliction,  and  even,  perhaps,  to  make 
auxiliaries  of  the  French  and  Spanish  dependencies.  It  seems, 

*  Universal  History,  vol.  xxxix.  p.  448. 


$  DIFFICULTIES    SURMOUNTED 

PART.  I.  moreover,  upon  an  attentive  review  of  the  history  of  France, 
v«^-v-^'  during  the  seventeenth  century,  almost  certain,  that  she  would 
not  herself  have  attempted,  in  that  period,  to  arrest  their  pro 
gress:  Afterwards,  they  might  have  defied  her  powers. 

They  could,  at  all  events,  hold  the   mother  country  re 
sponsible,  for  the  long  train  of  ills,  which  they  suffered  from 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  French,  by  referring  to  the  treaty  of 
1632,  between  Charles  I.  and  Louis  XIII.     On  this  occasion, 
Charles  restored  to  France,  absolutely  and  without  demarca 
tion  of  limits,  "  all  the  places  possessed  by  the  English  in 
New  France,  Lacadie,  and  Canada,  particularly  Port  Royal, 
Quebec,  and  Cape  Breton."  An  officer,  in  the  British  service, 
Sir  David  Kirk  had,  under  a  commission  from  the  crown,  made 
himself  master  of  Quebec,  in  1628,  during  the  war  between 
England  and  France.     "  To  this  fatal  treaty,"  says  a  British 
writer,*  "  may  be  truly  ascribed  all  the  disputes  we  have  had 
"  ever  since  with  France,  concerning  North  America;  cur 
u  king  and  his  ministers  being  sadly  outwitted  by  Richlieu's 
"  superior  dexterity.  The  three  places  delivered  up  to  France 
"  were  not,  it  is  true,  thought  of  the  same  importance  then, 
"  as  they  are  since  found  to  be;  yet  it  was  very  obvious,  even 
"  then,  to  any  considerate  observer,  that  as  those  French  co- 
"  Ionics  should  increase  in  people  and  commerce,  those  places 
"  would  be  of  the  utmost  importance  to  France,  and  very 
u  dangerous  to  England;  but  more  especially,  our  parting  with 
"  Port  Royal  and  Cape  Breton  is  never  to  be  excused,  as  the 
"  possession  of  them  by  the  French  gave  them  a  fair  pretext 
"  for  settling  on  the  south  side  of  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  and 
"  thereby  claiming  the  rest  of  Nova  Scotia  bordering  on  Eng- 
cc  land;  whereas,  had  the  French  been  strictly  confined  to  their 
"  original  settlements  on  the  north  side  of  that  river,  the  coun- 
"  try  is  so  bad  and  the  trade  thereof  so  indifferent,  that  before 
"  now  they  would  probably  have  quite  abandoned  them." 

4.  At  a  very  early  period,  the  mother  country  cast  the  re 
proach  which  she  has  constantly  repeated,  against  the  colo 
nists,  of  provoking  the  Indian  wars,  and  acquiring  the  domi 
nion  of  the  Indian  territory  by  fraud  as  well  as  force.  Dum 
mer's  Defence  of  the  Charters,  written  at  the  commencement 
of  thT  Tast™centiary,  'treats  of  this  "  unworthy  aspersion,"  as  the 
honest  author  styles  it,  and  as  he  proves  it  to  be,  by  unanswer 
able  suggestions.  With  respect  to  New  England  particularly, 

*  Macpherson's  Annals,  vol.  ii.  p.  372.    Chalmers  holds  nearly  tk  : 
same  language. 


BY   THE    COLONISTS. 


85 


what  he  asserts  is  susceptible  of  abundant  evidence — that "  she  SECT.  m. 
sought  to  gain  the  natives  by  strict  justice  in  her  dealings  with  ^^^'^^ 
them,  as  well  as  by  all  the  endearments  of  kindness  and  huma 
nity;"  that  "she  did  not  commence  hostilities,  nor  even  take  up 
arms  of  defence,  until  she  found  by  experience  that  no  other 
means  would  prevail" — and,  "  that  nothing  could  oblige  the 
Indians  to  peace  and  friendship,  after  they  conceived  a  jealousy 
of  the  growing  powers  of  the  English."  The  congress  of  the 
New  England  league  was  particularly  authorized,  to  prescribe 
rules  for  the  conduct  of  the  colonists,  towards  the  natives;  and 
its  legislation  on  this  head,  was  tempered  with  as  much  for 
bearance  and  mercy,  as  a  due  regard  for  self-preservation, 
would  possibly  admit.  So  rigid  were  its  enactments  against 
private  violence,  and  so  strict  was  the  execution  of  them,  that 
we  have  an  instance  of  three  settlers  being  put  to  death  at  the 
same  time,  for  the  murder  of  a  single  Indian. 

The  New  England  colonies,  far  from  being  exasperated,  as 
was  natural,  by  the  desperate  and  harassing  nature  of  their 
struggle  with  the  aborigines,  into  an  obdurate  resentment  and 
mortal  hate  against  the  whole  race,  exerted,  as  I  have  al 
ready  had  occasion  to  state,  unbounded  zeal  and  generosity, 
in  improving  the  condition,  and  refining  the   character,  of 
that  portion  of  them  whom  they  were  able  to  propitiate. 
I  believe  the  other  provinces,  to  whom  the  British  charge  was 
extended,  and  who  have  been  more  particularly  the  object 
of  it,  in  recent  times,  to  be  capable  of  vindication;  and  I  am 
convinced,  that  the  American  writers,  who  have  maintained 
the  contrary  doctrine,  have  either  suffered  themselves  to  be 
hoodwinked  by  prejudice,  or  have  not  traced  our  Indian  rela 
tions  in  the  detail  requisite  for  the  formation  of  a  sound  opi 
nion.     But  if  the  point  were  not  determinable  by  history,  we 
might  at  once  infer  from  the  general  aims  and  obvious  interests, 
the  weakness  and  the  wants,  of  the  early  colonists,  that  they 
were  not  the  aggressors  in  the  Indian  wars.  Be  this,  for  the  pre 
sent,  as  it  may,  it  cannot  be  denied,  that  after  hostilities  had  be 
gun  to  rage;  after  the  savage  had  been  roused  to  distrust  and  ven 
geance — the  case  of  the  settlers  was  one  of  the  most  absolute 
self  defence — of  extreme  necessity.     |In  the  contest  which  I 
have  noticed,  between  Philip  and  New  England,  and  in  the 
similar  struggles  in  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia,  the 
very  existence  of  these  provinces,  respectively,  was  at  stake, 
and  often  in  suspense.     Those  English  writers  who  so  loudly 
inveigh  against  the  North  American  colonies  for  their  treat 
ment  of  the  Indians,  may  be  defied  to  detect  in  their  annals, 
an  expedient  for  the  destruction  of  their  inveterate  enemy,  like 


86  DIFFICULTIES    SURMOUNTED 

PART  i.  that  of  the  employment  of  the  Spanish  bloodhounds  in  Jamaica, 
v-^-v-^'  to,  subdue  the  Maroon  negroes,  in  the  year  1730,  and  again  to 
wards  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Certainly,  there  is 
no  argument  urged  by  Dallas*  or  Bryan  Edwards,  to  justify 
the  recourse,  on  the  part  of  the  government  of  that  island,  to 
such  fell  auxiliaries,  which  would  not  have  been  available  for 
the  people  of  New  England;  which  might  not,  indeed,  receive 
additional  force  from  their  situation.!  The  pride  of  manhoodj 
Uie  innate  sympathies  of  kind,  and  the  influence  of  religion, 
with  the  hardy  and  virtuous  Puritans,  must  have  rendered  it 
impossible  for  them  to  imitate,  while  they  professed  to  abhor, 
the  worst  of  the  atrocities  practised  by  the  Spaniards  on  the 
aborigines  of  the  West  Indies.§ 

But,  in  order  to  convict  the  accusers,  of  a  guilt  of  inhuma 
nity,  far  deeper  than  any  with  which  they  have  ventured  to 
charge  their  u  kinsmen  of  America,"  it  is  hot  necessary  to 
refer  to  their  alliance,  in  Jamaica,  with  the  Spanish  chasseurs, 
or  to  their  military  administration  in  Hindostan.  I  would 
challenge  the  closest  scrutiny  into  our  history,  for  a  parallel  to 
the  measure  which  the  British  commanders  adopted,  after  the 
reduction  of  Nova  Scotia,  in  1755,  of  transplanting,  and  dis 
persing  through  the  British  colonies,  the  French  inhabitants 
of  that  province.  This  is  a  transaction  in  which  the  point  at 
issue  was,  not  existence,  but  the  more  easy  retention  of  a  con 
quest;  in  which  the  victims  were,  not  blood-thirsty  and  un- 
tameable  savages,  or  ferocious  banditti,  who  had  aimed  at  the 
extermination,  and  whose  presence  seemed  incompatible  with 
the  safety,  of  the  conquerors; — but "  a  mild,  frugal,  industrious, 
pious  people,"  of  whom  only  a  few  had  committed  any  offence, 
and  who,  generally,  could  be  taxed  with  no  more,  than  having 
indirectly  favoured  the  cause,  and  preferred  the  dominion,  of 
their  own  nation.  It  has  always  appeared  to  me,  that  the 
reason  of  state  was  never  more  cheaply  urged,  or  more  odiously 


*  History  of  the  Maroons,  by  R.  C.  Dallas,  vol.  ii.  letters  ix.  and  x. 
History  of  the  West  Indies,  by  Bryan  Edwards,  Appendix  to  Book  II. 

f  The  Edinburgh  Review,  (No.  4,)  in  condemning1  the  proceedings  of 
the  Jamaica  government,  remarks,  "  If,  by  our  own  policy,  iue  have  filled 
our  colonies  -with  barbarians,  let  us  not  aggravate  the  original  crime,"  &c. 
The  American  colonists  did  not  originally  fill  the  country  whicli  they 
acquired,  with  the  barbarians  whom  they  expelled  :  they  did  not  even, 
for  the  most  part,  intrude  upon  them  voluntarily ;  but  were  driven  by 
the  lash  of  domestic  tyrants. 

$  "  Some  gentlemen,"  says  Bryan  Edwards,  "  even  thought  that  the 
co-operation  of  dogs  with  British  troops,  would  give  not  only  a  cruel, 
but  also  a  very  dastardly  complexion  to  the  proceedings  of  government.'* 

$  See  Note  E. 


BY  THE    COLONISTS.  87 

triumphant,  than  on  this  occasion;  that  no  proceeding  in  rela-  SECT.  ill. 
tion  to  the  Indians,  for  which  we  have  been  rebuked  by  the  v-x-v^/ 
British,  either  before  or  since  our  independence,  could,  by  any 
ingenuity  or  eloquence,  be  made  to  wear  an  aspect  of  so  much 
wantonness  and  barbarity,  as  the  case  of  the  French  neutrals 
presents  in  the  simplest  form  of  recital.  Although  I  may  seem 
to  fall  into  a  wide  digression,  or  an  awkward  anticipation,  I 
will  venture  to  exhibit  it  here  in  some  detail,  as  matter  of 
history  worthy  of  being  more  generally  and  accurately  known. 
Retribution  is  due  to  all  the  parties;  to  those  who  perpetrated 
the  crime,  and  to  the  memory  of  the  sufferers,  who,  with  the 
Americans  that  received  them,  have  been  aspersed,  in  order 
to  weaken  the  impression  of  its  enormity. 

The  most  particular  account  which  I  have  found  of  this 
transaction,  is  given  in  Minot's  Continuation  of  the  History 
of  Massachusetts.*  The  historian  drew  his  narrative  from 
the  manuscript  journal  of  the  American  commander  of  the 
Massachusetts'  troops,  to  whom  the  merit  of  the  conquest  of 
Nova  Scotia  was  due.  This  officer,  General  Winslow,  of 
an  unexceptionable  and  elevated  character,  left  upon  record, 
the  expression  of  his  disgust  and  horror,  in  submitting  to  act 
the  part  which  was  imposed  upon  him  by  the  British  authori 
ties.  I  transcribe  some  of  the  shocking  details  from  Minot. 

"  The  French  force  in  Nova  Scotia  being1  subdued,  it  only  remained 
to  determine  the  measures  which  ought  to  be  taken  with  respect  to  the 
inhabitants,  who  were  about  seven  thousand  in  number,  and  whose 
character  and  situation  were  so  peculiar,  as  to  distinguish  them  from 
almost  every  other  community  that  has  suffered  under  the  scourge 
of  war." 

"  They  were  the  descendants  of  those  French  inhabitants  of  Nova 
Scotia,  who  after  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  in  1713,  by  which  the  province 
was  ceded  to  England,  were  permitted  to  hold  their  lands,  on  condition 
of  making  a  declaration  of  allegiance  to  their  new  sovereign,  which 
acknowledgment  of  fidelity  was  given  under  an  express  stipulation  that 
they  and  their  posterity  should  not  be  required  to  bear  arms,  either 
against  their  Indian  neighbours,  or  transatlantic  countrymen.  This  con 
tract  was  at  several  subsequent  periods  revived,  and  renewed  to  their 
children  ;  and  such  was  the  notoriety  of  the  compact,  that  for  half  a 
century,  they  bore  the  name,  and  with  some  few  exceptions,  maintained 
the  character  of  neutrals." 

"  The  character  of  this  people  was  mild,  frugal,  industrious  and  pious ; 
and  a  scrupulous  sense  of  the  indissoluble  nature  of  their  ancient  obli 
gation  to  their  king,  was  a  great  cause  of  their  misfortunes.  To  this 
^ye  may  add  an  unalterable  attachment  to  their  religion,  a  distrust  of  the 
right  of  the  English  to  the  territory  which  they  inhabited,  and  the  in 
demnity  promised  them  at  the  surrender  of  fort  Beau -sej our,  where  it 
was  stipulated  that  they  should  be  left  in  the  same  situation  as  they  were 
in  when  the  army  arrived,  and  not  be  punished  for  what  they  had  done 
afterwards." 

"Such  being  the  circumstances  of  the  French  neutrals,  as  they  were 

*  Cltap.  x. 


88  DIFFICULTIES   SURMOUNTED 

PART  I.  called,  the  lie  tenant  governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  his  council,  aided 
v^^  ~-^_.  by  the  admiral  Boscawen  and  Mostyn,  assembled  to  consider  of  the 
necessary  measures  to  be  adopted  towards  them.  If  the  whole  were 
to  sufler  for  the  conduct  of  a  part,  the  natural  punishment  would 
have  been  to  have  forced  them  from  their  country,  and  left  them  to  go 
wherever  they  pleased;  but  from  the  situation  of  the  province  of 
Canada,  it  was  obvious  that  this  would  have  been  to  recruit  it  with 
soldiers,  who  would  immediately  have  returned  in  arms  upon  the 
British  frontiers.  It  was,  therefore,  determined  to  remove  and  disperse 
this  whole  people  among  the  British  colonies,  where  they  could  nc  t 
unite  in  an*  offensive  measures,  and  where  they  might  be  naturalized 
to  the  government  and  country." 

"  The  execution  of  this  unusual  and  general  sentence  was  allotted 
chiefly  to  the  New  England  forces;  the  commander  of  which,  from  the 
humanity  and  firmness  of  his  character,  was  the  best  qualified  to  cany 
it  into  effect.  It  was  without  doubt,  as  he  himself  declared,  disagree 
able  to  his  natural  make  and  temper;  and  his  principles  of  implicit 
obedience  as  a  soldier  were  put  to  a  severe  test  by  this  ungrateful  kind  of 
duty,  which  required  an  ungenerous  cunning,  and  subtle  kind  of  seve 
rity,  calculated  to  render  the  Acadians  subservient  to  the  English  in 
terests  to  the  latest  hour.  They  were  kept  entirely  ignorant  of  the r 
destiny  until  the  moment  of  their  captivity,  and  were  overawed  or 
allured  to  labour  at  the  gathering  in  of  their  harvest,  which  was  secretly 
allotted  to  the  use  of  their  conquerors." 

"  The  orders  from  lieutenant  governor  Lawrence  to  captain  Mur 
ray,  who  was  first  on  the  station,  with  a  plagiarism  of  the  language, 
without  the  spirit  of  scripture,  directed  that  if  these  people  behaved 
amiss,  they  should  be  punished  at  his  discretion;  and  if  any  attempts 
were  made  to  destroy  or  molest  the  troops,  he  should  take  an  eye  for 
an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  and  in  short,  life  for  life,  from  the 
nearest  neighbour  where  the  mischief  should  be  performed." 

"  The  convenient  moment  having  arrived,  the  inhabitants  were  called 
into  the  different  ports  to  hear  the  King's  orders,  as  they  were  termed. 
At  Grand  Pre,  where  colonel  Winslow  had  the  immediate  command, 
four  hundred  and  eighteen  of  their  best  men  assembled.  These  being 
shut  into  the  church,  (for  that  too  had  become  an  arsenal,)  he  placed 
himself  with  his  officers  in  the  centre,  and  addressed  them  thus  : 

"  GENTLEMEN, 

"  I  have  received  from  his  excellency  governor  Lawrence,  the 
king's  commission,  which  I  have  in  my  hand;  and  by  his  orders  you  are 
convened  together,  to  manifest  to  you  his  Majesty's  final  resolution  to 
the  French  inhabitants  of  this  his  Province  of  Nova  Scotia." 

"  The  part  of  duty  I  am  nota  upoji,  though  necessary,  is  very  disagreeable 
to  my  natural  make  and  temper,  as  I  know  it  must  be  grievous  to  you  wA» 
are  of  the  same  species" 

"  But  it  is  not  my  business  to  animadvert,  but  to  obey  such  orders  as  \ 
receive,  and  therefore,  without  hesitation,  I  shall  deliver  you  his 
Majesty's  orders  and  instructions,  namely,  That  your  lands  and  tene 
ments,  cattle  of  all  kinds,  and  live  stock  of  all  sorts,  are  forfeited  to  the 
crown,  with  all  other  your  effects,  saving  your  money  and  household 
goods,  and  you  yourselves  to  be  removed  from  this  his  province." 

"  Thus  it  is  peremptorily  his  Majesty's  orders,  that  the  whole  French 
inhabitants  of  these  districts  be  removed,  and  I  am,  through  his  Majes 
ty's  goodness,  directed  to  allow  you  liberty  to  carry  off  your  money  and 
household  goods,  as  many  as  you  can  without  discommoding  the  vessels 
you  go  in.  I  shall  do  every  thing  in  my  power,  that  all  those  goods  kz 
secured  to  you,  and  that  >ou  are  not  molested  in  carrying  them  off  : 
also  that  whole  families  shall  go  in  Jhe  same  vessel;  and  make  th  s 


BY   THE   COLONISTS.  89 

remove,  which  I  am  sensible  must  give  you  a  great  deK  of  trouble,  as  SECT.  III. 
easy  as  his  Majesty's  service  will  admit ;  and  hope,  that .  1  whatever  part  v^"v*v*« 
of  the  world  you  may  fall,  you  may  be  faithful  subjects,  a  peaceable  and 
happy  people." 

"  I  must  also  inform  you,  that  it  is  his  Majesty's  pleasure  that  you 
remain  in  security,  under  the  inspection  and  direction  of  the  troops  that 
I  have  the  honour  to  command." 

"  And  he  then  declared  them  the  King's  prisoners. 

"  As  some  of  these  wretched  inhabitants  escaped  to  the  woods,  all 
possible  measures  were  adopted  to  force  them  back  to  captivity.  The 
country  was  laid  waste  to  prevent  their  subsistence.  In  the  district  of 
Minas  alone,  there  were  destroyed  255  houses,  276  barns,  155  out 
houses,  11  mills,  and  1  church  ;  and  the  friends  of  those  who  refused  to 
come  in,  were  threatened  as  the  victims  of  their  obstinacy.  In  short,  so 
operative  were  the  terrors  that  surrounded  them,  that  of  twenty-four 
young  men  who  deserted  from  a  transport,  twenty-two  were  glad  to 
return  of  themselves,  the  others  being  shot  by  sentinels  ;  and  one  of  their 
friends  who  -was  supposed  to  have  been  accessary  to  their  escape,  having  been, 
carried  on  shore,  to  behold  the  destruction  of  his  house  and  effects,  -which  were 
burned  in  his  presence,  as  a  punishment  for  Ms  temerity,  and  perfidious  aid 
to  his  comrades^  Being  embarked  by  force  of  the  musquetry,  they  were 
dispersed,  according  to  the  original  plan,  among  the  several  "British 
Colonies." 

Most  of  the  English  historians  have  slurred  over  this  har 
rowing  drama.  It  is  even  asserted  in  Smollett's  Continuation 
of  Hume,  and  in  the  modern  Universal  History,  that  the 
Acadians  were  merely  disarmed,  and  then  suffered  to  remain 
in  tranquillity!  Entick,  in  his  "  General  History  of  the  Seven 
Years  War,"  is  somewhat  more  candid;  and  for  the  further 
edification  of  my  readers,  I  will  proceed  to  quote  the  language 
in  which  this  reverend  author — of  no  mean  authority — relates 
and  glosses  so  portentous  an  iniquity.  As,  moreover,  his  ac 
count  is  the  only  one  through  which  the  affair  is  circumstan 
tially  known  to  the  readers  of  English  history,  I  am  disposed 
to  improve  the  opportunity,  of  placing  by  the  side  of  it,  the 
vindication  of  those  whom  he  calumniates. 

"  In  Nova  Scotia,  matters  did  not  favour  the  French  at  all  in  the 
year  1755.  General  Lawrence  pursued  his  success,  and  was  obliged  to 
use  much  severity,  to  extirpate  the  French  neutrals  and  Indians,  who 
refused  to  conform  to  the  laws  of  Great  Britain,  or  to  swear  allegiance 
to  our  sovereign,  and  had  engaged  to  join  the  French  troops  in  the 
spring,  expected  to  arrive  from  old  France,  as  early  as  possible,  on 
that  coast  or  at  Louisbourg ;  some  of  whom  with  ammunition,  stores, 
&C.  fell  into  the  hands  of  our  cruizers  off  Cape  Breton.  General  Law 
rence  did  not  only  pursue  those  dangerous  inhabitants  with  fire  and  sword, 
laying  the  country  waste,  burning  their  dwellings,  and  carrying  off  their 
stock ;  but  he  thought  it  expedient  for  his  Majesty's  service  to  transport 
the  French  neutrals,  so  as  to  entirely  extirpate  a  people,  that  only 
waited  an  opportunity  to  join  the  enemy." 

"  This  measure  was  very  commendable.  But  the  execution  of  it  was 
not  qviite  so  prudent.  The  method  taken  by  the  general  to  secure  the 
province  from  this  pest,  was  to  distribute  them,  in  number  about  seven 
thousand,  among  the  British  Colonies,  in  that  rigorous  season  of  winter, 
almost  naked,  and  without  monev  or  effects  to  help  themselves.  In  which 

VOL.  I.— M 


90  DIFFICULTIES    SURMOUNTED 

PART.  I.  distribution,  too  many  were  transported  to  those  colonies,  where  they 
^^^•^v  might  with  greatease  get  to  the  French  forts,  or  might  facilitate  any 
enterprize  from  those  forts,  on  the  back  of  our  provinces  on  the  south 
of  the  bay  of  St.  Lawrence.  Besides,  it  was  exercising  a  power  he  had 
no  right  unto.  For  his  command  reached  not  beyond  the  limits  of 
Nova  Scotia;  and  this  was  loading  each  government,  into  which  those 
neutrals  were  transported,  with  an  arbitrary  and  great  expense." 

"  This  may  be  exemplified  in  the  case  of  Pennsylvania.  The  quota 
imposed  on  that  province  was  415,  men,  women,  and  children.  They 
landed  in  a  most  deplorable  condition  at  Philadelphia,  to  be  maintained 
by  the  province,  or  turned  loose  to  beg  their  bread  :  and  this  city  not 
being  above  two  hundred  miles  distant  from  fort  Dti  Quesne,  it  was  very 
probable  the  men  might  get  unto,  and  join  their  countrymen  at  that 
fort;  or  strengthen  the  parties,  which  hovered  about  the  frontiers, 
and  were  continually  laying  waste  the  back  settlements.  The  govern 
ment  in  order  to  get  clear  of  the  charge,  such  a  company  of  miserable 
wretches  would  require  to  maintain  them,  proposed  to  sell  them  with 
their  own  consent :  but  when  this  expedient  fer  their  support  was 
oft'ered  to  their  consideration,  the  transports  rejected  it  with  indigna 
tion,  alledging,  That  they  were  prisoners,  and  expected  to  be  maintained 
as  such,  and  not  forced  to  labour.  They  farther  said,  that  they  had  not 
violated  their  oath  of  fidelity ;  which,  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  they 
were  obliged  to  take  ;  and  that  they  were  ready  to  renew  that  oath, 
but  that  a  new  oath  of  obedience  having  been  prescribed  to  them,  by 
which,  they  apprehended  the  neutrals  would  be  obliged  to  bear  arms 
against  the  French,  they  could  not  take  it,  and  thought  they  could  not 
be  compelled  to  do  it.  Thus  Gerteral  Lawrence  cleared  the  country  of  the 
French  neutrals;  and  the  Indians  in  their  intertst,  who  hud  been  very 
troublesome,  being  most  of  them  Roman  Catholics,  retired  to  Canada 
for  protection."* 

The  first  remark  I  would  make  on  this  narrative  of  Entick. 
is,  that  the  plan  which  he  ascribes  to  the  government  of  Penn 
sylvania,  of  selling  the  exiles,  had  no  existence,  and  was  im 
possible,  consistently  with  its  principles  and  powers.  That 
government,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Philadelphia,  when  near 
five  hundred  of  them  were  landed  in  a  plight  of  misery  which 
beggars  all  description,  received  them  with  the  liveliest  com 
passion,  and  provided  for  their  wants  with  the  readiest  libera 
lity.!  They  were  immediately  committed  to  the  charge  of 

*  Vol.i.  p.  385. 

"I"  I  have  before  me  an  exemplification  of  the  original  subscription  pa 
per  for  their  relief;  and  a  list  of  the  names  of  some  of  them,  which  runs 
thus  :  the  Widow  Landry,  blind  and  sickly;  her  daughter,  Bonne  Landry 
blind  ;  Widow  Coprit,  has  a  cancer  in  her  breast ;  Widow  Seville,  alway> 
sickly;  Ann  Leblanc,  old  and  sickly;  Widow  Leblanc,  foolish  and 
sickly;  the  two  youngest  orphan  children  of  Philip  Melanson  ;  three 
orphan  children  of  Paul  Bujauld,  the  eldest  sickly,  a  boy  foolish,  and  r- 
girl  with  an  infirmity  in  lier  mouth  ;  Haptist  Galerm's  foolish  child  . 
Joseph  Vincent,  in  a  consumption;  Widow  Gautram,  sickly,  with  a 
young  child;  Joseph  Benoit,  old  and  sickly;  Peter  Bressay,  has  a  rup 
ture,  &.c.  ;  Peter  Vincent,  himself  and  wife  sickly — three  children,  one 
blind,  and  very  young,  &.c.  Such  was  the  treatment  which  they  had  ex 
perienced,  that  notwithstanding  the  charitable  attentions  which  they  re 
ceived  after  their  arrival  in  Philadelphia,  more  than  one  half  of  them  dice 
in  a  short  time.  From  these  particulars  we  may  judge  how  far  they  wen- 
fitted  "  to  strengthen  the  parties  which  hovered  about  the  frontiers  !" 


BF   THE    COLONISTS. 


91 


WBMI     v/ii/y.       Vll 

philanthropy, 
lie,  who  have 


the  conservators  of  the  poor,  to  be  lodged  and  fed  at  the  pub-  SECT  III. 
lie  expense;  while  benevolent  individuals  of  the  society  of  ^^^v-^-' 
Friends,  made  and  collected  considerable  subscriptions  for 
their  more  comfortable  subsistence.  One  of  the  almoners  of 
the  city,  on  this  occasion,  Anthony  Bcnezet, — a  model  of 
r,  with  whose  character  those  of  the  English  Pub- 
have  read  Clarkson's  History  of  the  Abolition  of  the 
Slave  Trade,  cannot  pretend  to  be  unacquainted — devoted 
himself  to  the  alleviation  of  both  the  physical  and  mental 
wretchedness  of  the  unexpected  guests.  It  is,  probably,  from 
an  anecdote  connected  with  his  parental  exertions  in  their 
favour,  that  arose  the  idea  which  Entick  embraced,  respect 
ing  the  conduct  of  the  government  of  Pennsylvania.  This 
anecdote  is  thus  told  by  Mr.  Roberts  Vaux  in  his  excellent 
biography  of  Benezet.  "Such  was  his  assiduity,  and  care  of 
them,  that  it  produced  a  jealousy  in  the  mind  of  one  of  the 
oldest  men  among  them,  of  a  very  novel  and  curious  descrip 
tion;  which  was  communicated  to  a  friend  of  Benezet's — 
c  it  is  impossible^  said  the  Acadian,  '  that  all  this  kindness 
is  disinterested;  J\fr.  Benezet  must  certainly  intend  to  recom 
pense  himself  by  treacherously  selling  usS  When  their  patron 
and  protector  was  informed  of  this  suspicion?  it  was  so  far 
from  producing  an  emotion  of  anger,  or  an  expression  of  indig 
nation,  that  he  lifted  up  his  hands  and  laughed  immode 
rately." 

The  reverend  historian  was  right  in  affirming  that  the  British 
commandant  in  Nova  Scotia,  imposed  an  arbitrary  and  heavy, 
and  he  might  have  added,  unrequited  expense  upon  the  colo 
nies,  among  which  the  neutrals  were  distributed;  but  he 
laboured  under  an  error  in  supposing  that  General  Lawrence 
"  cleared  the  country"  at  once.  As  many  were  sent  away  in 
1755,  as  could  be  disposed  of  immediately.  A  considerable 
number  remained,  with  whom  the  same  course  was  pursued  a 
few  years  afterwards,  upon  the  inordinate  alarm  created  by 
the  landing  of  the  French  in  Newfoundland. 

In  the  first  instance,  seven  thousand  of  the  obnoxious  com 
munity,  as  Entick  relates,  were  thus  torn  from  their  rustic 
homes,  and  transported  in  a  way  worthy  of  being  compared 
with  the  "  middle  passage."  The  quota  then  assigned  to 
Massachusetts  exceeded  one  thousand.  a  This  extraordinary 
tax,"  says  her  historian  Minot,*  "  was  about  to  be  laid  anew 
upon  the  Province,  in  1762,  by  the  arrival  of  nine  ships  from 
Halifax,  with  700  French  neutrals  on  board.  By  an  examen 
of  these  people  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1760,  there  was 

*  Vol.  ii.  ch.  v. 


y*  DIFFICULTIES    SURMOUNTED 

PART  i.  found  to  be  1017  of  them  in  the  Province,  of  whom  only  394 

v-^v~^/  were  ab]e  to  labour.     For  the  expense  of  subsisting  them,  the 

Province  could  procure  no  allowance  from  Parliament,  and  so 

had  become  subject  to  indefinite  taxation  in  this  way  at  the 

discretion  of  the  commander  in  Nova  Scotia." 

No  proof  has  ever  been  produced, — none  exists,  to  support 
the  charges  which  Entick  prefers  against  the  sufferers — of 
having  engaged  to  join  the  French  troops,  and  refused  abso 
lutely  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  British  sovereign. 
On  the  other  hand,  their  own  allegations,  as  he  reports  them, 
and  which  give  them  strong  titles  to  respect,  are  upheld  by 
the  tenor  of  the  official  declarations  of  the  British  authorities 
in  Nova  Scotia,  who  pleaded,  little  more  in  substance,  than 
the  positive  orders  of  their  government,  and  a  supposed  over 
ruling  necessity,  as  regarded  the  more  secure  dominion  of 
that  territory.  Tradition  is  fresh  and  positive  among  us 
respecting  the  guileless,  peaceful,  and  scrupulous  character 
of  this  injured  people.  The  impression  which  it  made  here, 
upon  every  one  who  held  intercourse  with  them,  contributed 
to  render  more  intense,  the  compassion  raised  by  the  misera 
ble  vicissitude  of  their  fortunes,  and  the  extreme  poignancy 
of  their  grief.  Their  descendants,  now  scattered  over  these 
States,  receive,  universally  from  them  the  same  tale  of  in 
justice  and  woe.  It  is  consigned  in  the  Petition  which  they 
transmitted  from  Pennsylvania  to  the  King  of  Great  Britain, 
and  which  bears  intrinsic  evidence,  too  strong  to  be  resisted 
by  a  feeling  and  unprejudiced  reader,  of  the  truth  of  all  the 
details.*  To  complete  the  history,  I  ought  to  add,  that  no 
attention  whatever  was  paid  to  their  prayer  either  for  imme 
diate  redress,  or  a  judicial  hearing. 

Before  I  finish  with  this  matter,  I  will  claim  permis 
sion  to  moot  a  simple  case,  and  propound  a  few  natural 
queries. — Had  war  broken  out,  in  1808,  between  France 
and  the  United  States,  as  was  expected, — and  had  the 
latter  immediately,  upon  the  suspicion,  or  the  certainty, 
of  the  French  inhabitants  of  Louisiana  being  favourably 
inclined  to  Bonaparte,  u  cleared"  that  province  of  all  of 
them;  of  men,  and  women,  of  the  aged  and  the  young,  of  the 
sick  and  the  insane;  "pursuing  them  with  fire  and  sword, 
burning  their  dwellings,  laying  waste  their  plantations,  and 
destroying  their  stock" — had  those  inhabitants  been  driven 
off  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  "  in  the  rigorous  season  of 
winter,  almost  naked,  and  without  money  or  effects  to  help 

*  See  Note  F.  for  the  Petition  itself,  copied  from  the  draught  in  the 
hand-writing  of  Benezet. 


BY    THE    COLONISTS. 


93 


themselves" — had  they  been  thrown  in  this  condition,  from  SECT.  ill. 
prison  ships  as  confined  and  wasting  as  the  English  hulks,  N^~^**/ 
upon  the  charity  of  strangers  ignorant  of  their  language,  and 
prejudiced  against  their  race? — Or,  had  all  this  been  done  by 
the  American  commanders  in  Louisiana,  of  their  own  motion, 
and  had  the  American  government  then  refused  10  listen  to 
the  petition  for  relief,  of  that  remnant  of  the  prostrate  exiles, 
which  disease  and  grief  had  spared,  and  left  them  irrevo 
cably  to  their  fate — what  would  have  been  said  in  Great 
Britain?  When  would  the  world  have  ceased  to  ring  with  her 
execrations  upon  American  barbarity?  If  one  of  her  general 
officers  had  afterwards  put  to  death  two  Americans,  found  and 
acknowledged  to  be  co-operating,  with  a  hostile  tribe  of  sa 
vages  on  the  borders  of  Canada, — would  she  have  suffered  this 
act  to  be  placed  in  the  same  line  of  atrocity?  or,  however 
keen  her  sensibility  at  the  effusion  of  her  own  blood,  and  at  a 
fancied  outrage  upon  her  national  majesty,  would  she  have 
ventured  to  denounce  the  execution  of  Ambrister  and  Arbuth- 
not,  as  equal  in  guilt,  to  the  extirpation,  upon  such  grounds 
as  her  historians  offer  in  the  case  of  the  Acadians,  of  a  civi 
lized  community  of  many  thousands,  unimpeachable  in  their 
private  life;  confessedly  amiable  in  their  dispositions;  and 
happy  in  the  midst  of  ease  and  abundance  created  by  their 
industry  and  frugality? 

5.  Notwithstanding  the  notoriety  of  the  facts  upon  which 
I  have  touched — that  the  colonies  were  planted  at  the  expense 
of  private  adventurers,  fugitives  from  relentless  persecution; 
that  they  formed,  for  the  most  part,  their  own  constitutions; 
that  they  fought  and  overcame  the  Indians  without  aid  from 
abroad — that  the  mother  country  built  no  forts  either  on  their 
internal  or  Atlantic  frontier,  to  protect  them  from  invasion 
— that  she  sent  no  ships  of  war  to  guard  their  trade,  till 
many  years  after  their  settlement,  when  their  commerce  had 
become  an  object  of  revenue  to  the  crown,  and  of  profit  to  the 
British  merchants — that  her  parliament  passed  no  one  ma 
terial  act  concerning  them,  which  did  not  relate  to  the  regu- 
tion  of  trade  or  the  enlargement  of  the  metropolitan  authority 
— yet,  even  before  the  expiration  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
it  was  not  uncommon,  for  the  most  distinguished  of  the  par 
liamentary  leaders,  to  hold  the  language  which  Charles  Towns- 
end  employed  in  1765,  in  his  speech  in  favour  of  the  stamp 
act,  u  that  the  Americans  were  children  planted  by  her  care;      /  > 
nourished  up  by  her  indulgence,  and  defended  by  her  arms." 
I  can  trace  also,  to  an  early  period,  the  complaints  repeated  by 


94  DIFFICULTIES    SURMOUNTED 

PART  I.  the  same  British  minister,  concerning  their  unthankful  and 
^f^^^^  seditious  spirit,  and  that  niggardliness  "  which  grudged  even 
a  mite  to  relieve  the  beneficent  and  venerable  parent  from  the 
heavy  burdens  under  which  she  groaned."  When  the  disputes 
consequent  on  the  stamp  act  grew  warm,  these  topics  were  in 
the  mouths  of  all  who  supported  the  scheme  of  taxation,  and 
with  them  were  plentifully  mixed  the  prejudices  concerning 
the  pedigree  and  general  character  of  the  Americans,  of  which 
I  have  spoken  in  the  preceding  section.  Bit  is  among  the  re 
marks  made  by  Franklin,  in  his  examination  before  the  House 
of  Commons,  in  1766,  that  "America  had  been  greatly  abused 
in  England,  in  papers,  and  pamphlets,  and  speeches,  as  un 
grateful,  and  unreasonable,  and  unjust,  in  having  put  the 
British  nation  to  an  immense  expense  for  their  defence,  and 
refusing  to  bear  any  part  of  that  expense." 

"Our  newspapers  and  politicians,"  said  one  of  the  ablest 
of  the  British  writers  of  that  day,  "  have  been  lately  full  of 
"  invectives  against  the  disposition  and  conduct  of  the  Ameri- 
"  cans,  and  using  foul-mouthed  reproach.  There  are  indeed 
"  a  set  of  men,  who,  from  dulness,  being  totally  ignorant  of 
"  the  colonies,  or  from  pride,  ashamed  to  have  a  knowledge 
"  of  them,  talk  of  what  we,  for  such  is  their  language,  have 
"done  for  them;  what  money  we  have  spent;  what  blood  we 
"'have  lavished;  and  what  trouble  we  have  had  in  establishing 
"  and  protecting  them  to  this  day;  and  after  a  thousand  such 
"  self-applauses,  declaim  against  the  baseness,  ingratitude, 
"  and  rebellion,  of  an  obstinate,  senseless,  and  abandoned  set 
"  of  convicts." 

In  this  strain,  Dr.  Johnson  wrote  and  talked,  as  the  organ 
of  the  ministry.  It  was  in  vain  that  Barre  replied  to  Towns- 
end  with  a  fire  and  force  of  rhetoric  worthy  of  Demosthenes, 
and  that  Burke  declared  to  Parliament,  "  the  colonies  in  ge 
neral  owe  little  or  nothing  to  any  care  of  ours — a  generous 
nature  has  with  them,  taken  its  own  way  to  perfection." 
Merits  of  every  kind  continued  to  be  claimed  for  the  mother 
country,  and  it  was  particularly  insisted,  that  the  blood  and 
treasure  lavished  in  the  American  wars,  from  1690  to  1763, 
were  spent  in  the  cause  of  the  colonies  alone.  This  point  had 
come  particularly  under  discussion  in  the  year  1760,  when 
the  question  of  surrendering  Canada  to  the  French  was  agi 
tated  in  England.  It  was  argued  affirmatively  with  great  zeal, 
in  a  work  of  high  authority  at  that  time,  to  which  Franklin 
answered  by  his  celebrated  Canada-Pamphlet.  The  illustri 
ous  philosopher  demonstrated,  that  the  retention  of  Canada  was 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  Great  Britain;  but  that,  though 


BY   THE    COLONISTS.  95 

desirable  for  the  colonies  as  a  means  of  preserving  peace  on  SECT.  in. 

their  borders,  it  would  be  attended  with  disadvantages  over-  ^^^^^^ 

balancing  this  consideration,  which  had  become  of  the  less 

moment  from  the  military  strength  they  had  acquired,  and  the 

impression  they  had  made  upon  the  Indian  nations.    He  took 

one  particular  view  of  their  case,  which  belongs  to  history, 

and  should  be  offered  to  my  readers  as  equally  striking  and 

just.     "  I  do  not  think  that  our  c  blood  and  treasure  have  been 

46  expended/  as  the  author  of  the  pamphlet  intimates,  4  in  the 

"  cause  of  the  colonies,  and  that  England  is  making  conquests 

"  for  them;'  yet  I  believe  this  is  too  common  an  error;  I  do 

"  not  say  that  they  are  altogether  unconcerned  in  the  event. 

"  The  inhabitants  of  them  are,  in  common  with  other  sub- 

"  jects  of  Great  Britain,  anxious  for  the  glory  of  her  crown, 

"  the  extent  of  her  power  and  commerce,  the  welfare   and 

"  future  repose  of  the  whole  British  people.    They  could  not, 

u  therefore,  but  take  a  large  share  in  the  affronts  offered  to 

"  Britain;  and  have  been  animated  with  a  truly  British  spirit, 

"  to  exert  themselves  beyond  their  strength,  and  against  their 

"  evident  interests.     Yet  so  unfoiiunate  have  they  been,  that 

44  their  virtue  has  made  against  them;  for  upon  no  better  foun- 

"  dation  than  this  have  they  been  supposed  the  authors  of  the 

"  war,  and  has  it  been  said  to  be  carried  on  for  their  advan- 

"  tage  only." 

Adam  Smith  strengthened  the  common  error,  and  unwit 
tingly  promoted  the  ministerial  scheme  of  deception,  by  the 
following  loose  passage  of  the  seventh  chapter  of  the  fourth 
book  of  his  Wealth  of  Nations. — "  The  English  colonists  have 
never  yet  contributed  any  thing  towards  the  defence  of  the 
mother  country,  or  towards  the  support  of  its  civil  government. 
They,  themselves,  on  the  contrary,  have  hitherto  been  defend 
ed  almost  entirely  at  the  expense  of  the  mother  country." 
These  propositions  are  inconsistent  with  the  tenor  of  the  opi 
nions  which  I  have  quoted  from  the  same  chapter,  and  have 
not  the  least  hold  in  the  colonial  history.  A  direct  and  com 
plete  refutation  of  them  is  to  be  found  in  Franklin's  writings. 
With  respect  to  the  war  of  1756  particularly,  which  Adam 
Smith  had,  no  doubt,  immediately  in  view,  the  American  cham 
pion  placed  the  question  in  its  true  light  to  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  in  his  examination  before  that  body.  His  doctrine  passed 
without  contradiction  at  the  moment.  "  I  know  the  last  war 
"  is  commonly  spoken  of  here  as  entered  into  for  the  defence, 
"  or  for  the  sake  of  the  people  in  America.  I  think  it  is  quite 
"  misunderstood.  It  began  about  the  limits  between  Canada 
'*-  and  Nova  Scotia;  about  territories  to  which  the  crown  indeed 


96  DIFFICULTIES    SURMOUNTED 

PART  I.  "  laid  claim,  but  which  were  not  claimed  by  any  British  coio- 
^^-v-**^  u  ny;  none  of  the  lands  had  been  granted  to  any  colonists,  we 
u  had  therefore  no  particular  concern  or  interest  in  that  dispute. 
"  As  to  the  Ohio,  the  contest  there  began  about  your  right  of 
"  trading  in  the  Indian  country,  a  right  you  had  by  the  treaty 
u  of  Utrecht,  which  the  French  infringed;  they  seized  the  tra- 
"  ders  and  their  goods,  which  were  your  manufactures;  they 
"  took  a  fort  which  a  company  of  your  merchants,  and  their 
"  factors  and  correspondents,  had  erected  there,  to  secure  that 
"  trade.  Braddock  was  sent  with  an  army  to  retake  that  fort, 
"  (which  was  looked  on  here  as  another  encroachment  on  the 
"  king's  territory,)  and  to  protect  your  trade.  It  was  not  till 
"  after  his  defeat  that  the  colonies  were  attacked.  They  were 
ic  before  in  perfect  peace  with  both  French  and  Indians;  the 
"  troops  were  not  therefore  sent  for  their  defence." 

The  whole  subject,  including  the  motives  and  ends  of  what 
were  called  the  colonial  contests  of  the  Europ^ajjupowers,  was 
taken  up  by  Broughajn-^in  his  work  on  their  colonial  policy, 
and  so  treated  as  to  be  nolWger  a  field  of  controversy.  He  has 
satisfactorily  shown,  that  "  the  quarrels  of  the  mother  country 
alone  were,  in  almost  every  instance,  the  causes  which  involved 
every  part  of  the  empire  in  wars;"  that u  the  foreign  relations 
of  the  colonies  were  almost  always  subservient,  and  postponed 
to  those  of  the  parent  state;"  and  that,  "so  far  from  involving 
her  in  their  quarrels,  they  suffered  more  than  any  part  of  the 
system,  by  the  proper  quarrels  of  the  metropolis." 

The  following  desultory  extracts  from  his  first  volume  con 
tain  general  views,  which  I  think  it  important  to  present, 
upon  such  authority,  and  some  facts,  of  which  the  force  will 
be  more  felt,  when  they  are  so  avouched. 

"The  supporters  of  the  different  economical  systems  have  consider 
ed  a  colony  as  a  mother  country,  held  in  subjection  by  another  state  ; 
not  as  a  part  of  that  state,  connected  with  it  by  various  ties.  It  appears 
more  proper  to  view  the  establishment  of  distant  colonies  as  an  exten 
sion  of  a  country's  dominions,  into  regions  which  enjoy  a  diversity  of 
soil  and  climate  AVh'le  the  colonies  then  are  only  to  be  viewed  as 
distant  provinces  of  the  same  country,  it  is  absurd  to  represent  their 
defence  and  government  as  a  burden,  either  to  the  treasury  or  to  the 
forces  of  the  mother  country." 

"The  wars  which  a  state  undertakes,  apparently  for  the  defence  of 
the  colonial  dominions,  are,  in  reality,  very  seldom  the  consequence, 
even  of  her  possessing  those  distant  territories.  Two  nations,  who 
would  commence  hostilities  on  account  of  their  colonies,  would  never 
want  occasions  for  quarrelling,  had  they  no  possessions.  In  fact,  any 
influence  which  the  circumstances  of  the  colonies  can  exert  on  the 
dispositions  of  the  parent  state,  is  much  more  likely  to  be  of  a  nature 
favourable  to  the  maintenance  of  peace  **  Whatever  effects  may  be  at 
tributed  to  the  attention  which  has  been  paid  to  colonial  policy,  it  is 
probable  that  instead  of  increasing,  it  has  diminished  the  frequency  of 


BY   THE    COLONISTS. 


97 


wars  in  modern  times.    Whatever  circumstances  may  have  involved  SECT.  III. 
Great  Britain  in  a  colonial  warfare  in  1739  and  1756,  a  little  reflection  ^^^^-^^ 
will  show  us,  that  the  contests  were  not  occasioned  by  the  possession 
of  territories  in  America,  but  only  broke  out  in  that  quarter  of  the  globe, 
as  well  as  in  Europe,  in  consequence  of  the  relations  of  European  poli 
tics  between  the  different  powers  possessing  territories  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic." 

"It  should  seem,  that  in  ascribing  to  the  possession  of  colonies,  the 
wars  of  1739,  1756,  and  1778,  philosophers  have  been  led  into  an  error, 
not  uncommon  in  any  of  the  departments  of  science,  and  in  none  more 
frequent  than  in  politics, — the  mistake  of  the  occasion  for  the  cause, 
and  of  a  collateral  effect  for  a  principle  of  causation.  They  have  search-, 
ed  in  America  for  the  origin  of  misfortunes,  of  which  the  seeds  lay  neaij 
home — in  the  mutual  relations  of  the  European  powers,  the  diversityl  A 
of  national  character,  and  the  belligerent  nature  of  man."  } 

"The  colonies  occasion  a  diversion  in  favour  of  the  tranquillity  and 
security  of  the  parent  states.  The  strength  and  valour  which  might 
otherwise  be  exerted,  in  committing  to  the  chance  of  war  the  indepen 
dence  of  the  European  powers,  are  displayed  in  the  distant  regions  of 
the  New  World,  and  exhausted  without  danger  to  the  capitals." 

"  While  their  colonies  thus  render  to  the  great  maritime  powers  of 
Europe  the  important  service  of  determining  (as  it  were)  the  eruption 
of  hostilities,  to  the  extremities,  where  it  may  spend  a  force  that  would 
have  proved  fatal  to  the  nobler  parts  of  the  system,  the  structure  of 
those  distant  communities,  is,  in  general,  of  a  less  delicate  nature,  and 
better  adapted  to  sustain  the  shock  of  military  operations." 

"  The  old  colonies  of  North  America,  besides  defraying  the  whole 
expenses  of  their  internal  administration,  were  enabled,  from  their  situa 
tion,  to  render  very  active  assistance  to  the  mother  country,  upon  seve 
ral  occasions,  not  peculiarly  interesting  to  themselves.  They  uniformly 
asserted,  that  they  would  never  refuse  contributions  even  for  purposes 
strictly  imperial,  provided  these  were  constitutionally  demanded.  Nor 
did  they  stop  at  mere  professions  of  zeal." 

**  The  whole  expense  of  civil  government  in  the  British  North  Ame 
rican  colonies,  previous  "to  the  revolution,  did  not  amount  to  eighty 
thousand  pounds  sterling;  which  was  paid  by  the  produce  of  their 
taxes.  The  military  establishment,  the  garrisons,  and  the  forts,  in  the 
old  colonies,  cost  the  mother  country  nothing." 

"In  the  war  of  1739,  when  their  population  and  resources  were  very 
trifling,  they  sent  three  thousand  men  to  join  the  expedition  to  Cartha- 
gena.  The  privateers  fitted  out  in  the  different  ports  of  America,  and 
belonging  to  the  colonies,  were  even  in  that  time,  both  in  numbers  of 
men  and  guns,  more  powerful  than  the  whole  British  navy,  at  the  era 
of  its  victory  over  the  Spanish  armada.  Many  parts  of  the  colonies  have, 
at  all  times,  furnished  large  supplies  to  the  naval  force  that  was  destined 
to  protect  them.  The  fisheries  of  New  England,  in  particular,  used  to 
contribute  a  vast  number  of  excellent  seamen  to  the  British  navv." 


VOL.  I.— N 


SECTION  IV. 


OF  THE  MILITARY  EFFORTS  AND  SUFFERINGS  OF  THE 
COLONISTS,  IN  THE  WARS  OF  THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY^ 

PART  I.  !•  THE  colonies  took  an  active  part,  and  had  even  an 

v^^-v-^/  excessive  share,  in  the  almost  continuous  wars  which  Great 
Britain  waged  between  the  years  1680  and  1763.  As  soon 
as  hostilities  broke  out  in  Europe,  towards  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  belligerent  powers  industriously 
kindled  the  fiercest  animosities  between  their  respective  Ame- 
*  rican  dependencies.  Those  of  the  French  and  Spaniards 
being  greatly  inferior  in  internal  strength,  thought  to  compen 
sate  themselves  for  this  disparity,  by  arraying  the  Indians  on 
their  side,  and  keeping  their  merciless  auxiliaries  in  perpetual 
action.  They  animated  and  led  them,  in  irruptions  into  the 
British  provinces,  memorable  for  the  worst  evils  which  charac 
terize  Indian  warfare.  The  destruction  of  the  settlements  ot 
Port  Royal,  on  the  southern  frontier  of  Carolina,  by  the  Spa 
niards  of  St.  Augustine,  in  1686, — the  murderous  expedition 
of  the  French  against  Schenectady  and  Corlar,  in  New  York, 
and  their  successful  attacks  upon  Salmon  Falls  and  Casco,  in 
1690,  maybe  cited  as  specimens,  of  what  is  to  be  considered 
as  the  mere  prelude,  to  the  similar  hostilities  with  which  the 
English  colonists  were  afflicted,  almost  without  intermission.; 
for  more  than  half  a  century  afterwards.  They  began  nearly 
at  the  same  time,  to  act  vigorously  on  the  offensive;  less,  how 
ever,  by  the  proxy  of  the  Indians,  whom  they  could  attach 
to  their  cause,  than  in  their  own  persons,  and  with  their  own 
resources.  We  find  New  England  twice  engaged  during 
1690,  in  attempts  upon  a  large  scale,  to  reduce  Canada.  In 
that  year,  Sir  William  Phipps,  governor  of  Massachusetts, 
with  a  fleet  of  eight  small  vessels,  and  eight  hundred  men, 
made  himself  master  of  the  fort  of  Port  Royal  in  Acadia,  and 
took  possession  of  the  whole  coast  from  that  place  to  the  New 
England  settlements.  Another,  and  more  considerable  arma 
ment  was  despatched  immediately  after,  under  the  same  com 
mander,  against  Quebec,  but  it  proved  highly  disastrous 


MILITARF  EFFORTS,  &C.  99 

owing  to  the  incapacity  of  the  royal  governor.*  One  thousand  SECT.IV 
of  the  New  England  troops  perished  in  this  bold  enterprise,  v^-v-*^ 
and  the  vessels  employed  in  it,  were  all  lost  on  their  return; 
the  colonies  that  had  so  nobly  strained  their  means,  incurred 
a  debt  of  =£140,000,  and  the  necessity  of  issuing  bills  of  cre 
dit — the  first  paper  money  (born  in  an  evil  hour,)  which  is 
mentioned  in  our  annals.  The  contingent  of  men,  which 
Connecticut  and  New  York  had  stipulated  to  send  against 
Montreal,  as  a  diversion  in  favour  of  the  forces  directed  against 
Quebec,  was  arrested  in  camp,  and  dreadfully  reduced  by  the 
small  pox.  This,  and  other  malignant  epidemics,  made,  at 
different  times,  great  havoc  throughout  the  North  American 
communities,  and  are  to  be  classed  among  the  most  formida 
ble  of  the  numerous  obstacles  to  their  progress. 

These  enterprises  of  New  England  originated  in  her  own 
sagacity  and  intrepidity.  The  mother  country  took  no  part 
and  little  interest  in  them.  Sir  William  Phipps  made  a  voy 
age  to  London,  in  order  to  solicit  aid  and  encouragement  for 
the  prosecution  of  the  object,  but  met  with  no  success.!  "  It 
would  be  amazing,"  says  the  Universal  History,  "  that  the 
English  court  should  all  the  while  express  so  little,  or  no  con 
cern,  for  so  fine  and  well  situated  a  country  as  Acadia,  did  we 
not  consider  that  king  William  and  the  English  government 
had  at  this  time  on  their  hands,  two  great  wars  in  Europe,  one 
in  Ireland,  and  one  in  Flanders.  Whatever  had  been  done 
against  the  French  in  New  France,  was  effected  by  the  New 
England  forces,  without  any  assistance  from  Old  England, 
farther  than  that  the  king  and  ministry  there  signed  commis 
sions."^  The  fruits  of  the  success  at  Port  Royal  were  lost 
by  the  restoration  of  the  whole  territory  taken,  at  the  peace  of 
Ryswick. 

In  1693,  the  British  cabinet  yielding  at  length  to  the  in 
stances  of  New  England,  undertook  to  assist  her  with  a  con 
siderable  force  towards  another  invasion  of  Canada.  The 
fleet  designated  for  the  purpose,  was,  however,  first  employed 
in  an  attempt  upon  Martinico,  and  experienced  there,  disasters 
which  unfitted  it  for  any  further  operations.  In  the  mean 
while,  the  colonies  eagerly  made  preparations,  in  conformity 
with  the  plan  concerted  in  England;  which  were  so  great,  says 
the  Universal  History,  that  they  probably  would  have  been 


*  Universal  Military  History,  vol.  xl. 

f  Some  years  after,  Colonel  Schuyler,  of  New  York,  went  to  Eng 
land,  at  his  private  expense,  on  the  same  errand. 
i    Vol.  xxxix. 


100  MILITARY   EFFORTS 

PARTI,  successful.*  In  the  province  of  New  York  five  hundred  men 
^^s~**^  were  raised  for  an  attack  upon  Montreal;  and  this  body  when 
set  upon  by  a  greatly  superior  force  of  French  and  Indians, 
fought,  adds  the  same  authority,  u  with  inconceivable  resolu 
tion."  An  accumulation  of  debt  and  trouble  was  the  only 
result  for  the  colonies,  of  the  whole  arrangement.  The  French 
of  Canada  were  emboldened  by  its  miscarriage,  to  more 
harassing  and  destructive  incursions.  Three  years  after,  the 
French  court  equipped  a  considerable  fleet,  destined  to  reta 
liate  on  the  British,  by  ravaging  the  coasts  of  New  England, 
and  reducing  New  York.  No  means  of  averting  the  impend 
ing  danger  were  neglected  by  the  colonies;  and  the  only  ma 
terial  injury,  besides  the  labour  and  expense  of  considerable 
levies,  which  they  suffered  from  the  French  plan  of  conquest, 
was  the  loss  of  the  fort  at  Pemaquid,  erected,  most  idly, 
"  by  the  special  order  of  king  William  and  queen  Mary," 
though  at  the  sole  and  very  heavy  cost  of  Massachusetts,  and 
of  which  the  futility  was  obvious  from  the  first,  to  some  of  the 
"  poor  provincials." 

When,  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  intel 
ligence  was  received  in  America,  of  England  being  again 
at  war  with  France  and  Spain,  hostilities  were  renewed 
there  with  the  utmost  animation.  In  1702,  South  Carolina, 
with  a  population  of  only  seven  thousand  whites,  and  scarce 
ly  forty  years  after  its  settlement,  sent  an  expensive  expedi 
tion  of  six  hundred  militia,  and  as  many  Indians,  against 
St.  Augustine.  The  whole  purpose  was  not  accomplished, 
indeed,  but  great  mischief  was  done  to  the  Spaniards.  "  It 
is  almost  incredible,"  remarks  the  Universal  History,!  "  that 
a  government  so  lately  settled  as  that  of  Carolina,  and  subject 
to  such  mismanagements  from  the  proprietary,  should  under 
take  so  unpromising  an  affair,  and  be  so  near  succeeding  in  it 
as  the  Carolinians  were."  The  mystery  is  to  be  explained  by 
the  spirit  of  its  popular  assembly.  Under  the  same  auspices, 
a  body  of  Carolinians  marched,  the  following  year,  against 
the  Apalachian  Indians,  the  allies  of  the  Spaniards,  acting 
under  the  command  of  a  Spanish  colonel;  penetrated  into  the 
heart  of  their  settlements;  subdued  and  dispersed  them,  and 
reduced  their  whole  territory  under  the  British  power.  An 
invasion  of  Carolina,  from  the  Havanna,  was  attempted  in 
1706,  by  the  Spaniards  and  French,  with  a  formidable  force, 
and  most  gallantly  repelled  and  frustrated  by  troops  assem 
bled  in  haste  at  Charleston.  Nearly  one  half  of  the  assail 
ants  were  cither  killed  or  taken,  and  the  infant  colony  had 

*  Vol.  xxxix.  p.  63.  f  Vol.  xxxix. 


OF    THE    COLONISTS.  101 

little  to  regret  on  the  occasion,  except  the  heavy  burden  of  SECT.IV. 
the  expenses  incurred  in  the  military  levy.  v^-v-^-' 

2.  The  martial  activity  of  the  northern  provinces  was 
equally  remarkable,  and  their  suffering  greater.  In  1702,  all 
the  settlements  from  Casco  to  Wells  were  ravaged  with  fire 
and  sword,  by  a  party  of  Indians  and  French,  and  one  hun 
dred  and  thirty  of  the  laborious  husbandmen  either  killed  or 
made  prisoners.  A  large  band  of  the  same  enemies  surprised, 
two  years  subsequent,  the  town  of  Deerfield,  in  Massachusetts, 
laid  it  in  ashes,  and  either  butchered  or  captured  the  inha 
bitants  to  the  number  of  nearly  two  hundred.  This  olamity 
was  immediately  and  fully  retorted,  by  an  expedition*  oi*  five 
hundred  and  fifty  New  England  volunteers,  againsUhe  French 
and  Indian  settlements  of  Penobscot  and  Passafir/aijUD^dy;  ,and 
but  a  small  time  elapsed  before  the  New  England  government 
despatched  another  armament,  consisting  of  several  thousand 
men,  to  reduce  Acadia.  The  enterprise  failed,  in  consequence 
of  an  injudicious  march  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Port  Royal, 
which  was  occasioned  by  the  obstinacy  and  insubordination 
of  the  officers  of  the  Deptford  man  of  war,  under  whose  con 
voy  the  provincial  fleet  of  transports  had  been  sent.*  The  at 
tention  of  New  England  was  speedily  attracted  to  her  domestic 
safety;  for  the  French  and  Indians  penetrated,  in  1708,  to 
Haverhill,  on  Merrimack  river,  and  dealt  with  that  town  as 
they  had  done  with  Deerfield. 

The  subjugation  of  Canada  continued  to  be  urged  upon  the 
British  court  by  the  politicians  of  Massachusetts  and  New 
York;  but  it  had  no  relish  for  the  ministry  of  the  day,  who, 
as  the  historians  relate,  would  have  preferred  rather  the  ex 
tension,  than  the  abridgment  of  the  French  power  in  America. 
However,  in  1709,  orders  were  received  by  the  provinces 
to  prepare  for  the  enterprise,  upon  a  larger  scale,  and  obey 
ed  with  the  utmost  alacrity.  After  considerable  levies  had 
been  made,  and  the  transports  and  troops  kept,  four  months,  in 
waiting  at  Boston  for  the  arrival  of  the  English  fleet,  it  was 
announced  from  London,  that  a  change  in  the  affairs  of  Eu 
rope  rendered  it  expedient  to  relinquish  the  expedition! 

The  account  which  the  historian  of  New  York,  Smith,  has 
transmitted  of  this  affair,  developes  further  its  character,  and 
is  highly  creditable  to  the  spirit  of  that  province.  "  The  plan 
"of  operations  was  ( oncerted  at  New  York,  with  Francis 
"  Nicholson,  formerly  our  lieutenant  governor,  who,  at  the 

*  Universal  History,  vol.  xl.  p.  151. 


MILITARY    EFFORTS 

PART  I.  "  request  of  our  governor  and  of  those  of  Connecticut  and 
'^-v-^-'  u  Pennsylvania,  accepted  the  chief  command  of  the  provin- 
"  cial  forces,  intended  to  penetrate  into  Canada,  by  the  way 
"  of  Lake  Champlain.  Impoverished  as  we  were,  the  as- 
"  sembly  joined  heartily  in  the  enterprise.  Universal  joy 
"  now  brightened  every  man's  countenance,  because  all  ex- 
"  pected  the  complete  reduction  of  Canada  before  the  ensuing 
"  autumn.  We  exerted  ourselves  to  the  utmost.  Having  put 
u  ourselves  to  the  expense  of  above  twenty  thousand  pounds, 
"  the  delay  of  the  arrival  of  the  British  fleet  spread  a  general 
"  discontent  through  the  country;  our  forces  were  finally  re- 
"called/rpifi  camp,  &c.  Had  this  expedition  been  vigorously 
"  prcistctitad,  doubtless  it  would  have  succeeded.  The  allied 
".a-rjiay  triumphed  in  repeated  successes  in  Flanders;  and  the 
4i  cQur|;/>f;Ftaoce  was  in  no  condition  to  give  assistance  to  so 
*c  distant  a  colony  as  Canada.  The  Indians  of  the  Five  Na 
tions  were  engaged  to  join  heartily  in  the  attempt,  and  the 
"  eastern  colonies  had  nothing  to  fear  from  the  Ouwenagungas. 
"  In  America,  every  thing  was  ripe  for  the  attack.  At  home, 
"  lord  Sunderland,  the  secretary  of  state,  had  despatched  or- 
u  ders  to  the  queen's  ships  at  Boston  to  hold  themselves  in 
"  readiness,  &c.  At  this  juncture,  the  news  arrived  of  the 
u  defeat  of  the  Portuguese;  the  forces  intended  for  the  Ame- 
u  rican  adventure  were  then  ordered  to  their  assistance,  and 
"  the  thoughts  of  the  ministry  entirely  diverted  from  the  Cana- 
u  da  expedition.  The  abortion  of  our  plan  exposed  us  to  con- 
"  sequences  equally  calamitous,  dreaded  and  foreseen;  as  soon 
a  as  the  scheme  dropped,  numerous  parties  of  the  French  and 
u  Indian  allies  were  sent  out  to  harass  the  English  frontiers, 
a  and  committed  the  most  savage  cruelties."* 

New  England,  with  her  usual  spirit,  pressed  an  immediate 
descent  upon  Acadia  at  least,  with  the  military  means  which 
had  been  collected  at  such  heavy  cost;  but  the  captains  of  the 
British  men  of  war  on  that  station,  could  not  be  prevailed  upon 
even  to  serve  as  convoy  to  the  transports.  To  defray  their 
quota  of  the  expenses  of  this  fruitless  armament,  the  colonies  of 
Connecticut,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey,  issued  for  the  first 
time,  those  ill-omened  symbols — bills  of 'credit. 

In  less  than  a  twelvemonth,  New  England,  engaged — upon 
further  promises  of  co-operation  from  the  mother  country, 
which  were  not  fulfilled: — in  an  expedition  against  Port  Royal; 
and  with  several  regiments  of  her  owr,  supported  by  a  few 
English  frigates,  forced  that  place  to  surrender.  In  the  year 

*  History  of  New  York,  Part  iv. 


OF   THE    COLONISTS. 


103 


1710,  the  governments  of  New  England,  New  York,  the  Jer-  SECT.iv. 
seys,  and  Pennsylvania,  suddenly  received  orders  from  the  v^v-**-' 
British  sovereign,  to  hold  in  readiness  their  contingents  of  men 
for  an  enterprise  against  Canada,  in  which  a  powerful  fleet, 
to  be  expected  in  a  few  days  after  on  the  American  coast,  was 
to  take  the  lead.  The  fleet  arrived  in  little  more  than  a  fort 
night,  bringing  requisitions  for  troops  and  provisions,  which  it 
seemed  impossible  to  satisfy  on  so  short  a  notice.  A  congress 
of  the  colonial  governors  assembled  at  New  London,  and  took 
such  measures  as  to  raise  and  fully  equip,  a  considerabe  force 
in  a  few  weeks.  Infinite  distress  arose  out  of  so  sudden  and 
large  a  demand  for  money  and  provisions;  and  a  suspicion 
prevailed,  that  the  tory  ministry  of  queen  Anne  designed,  by 
this  hurried  proceeding,  to  defeat,  themselves,  the  proposed 
end  of  the  expedition,  and  to  make  New  England  responsible 
for  the  miscarriage. 

The  expedition  did,  in  fact,  fail  most  miserably,  by  the 
stranding  of  the  British  vessels  in  the  river  St.  Lawrence;  and 
the  whole  blame  was  cast  upon  the  colonies,  as  they  had  fore 
boded.  The  English  admiral  attributed  the  loss  of  his  ships 
to  the  advice  of  the  New  England  pilots,  and  the  French  his 
torian,  Charlevoix,  an  impartial  arbiter  in  this  case,  charges 
it  upon  "the  distrust  and  obstinacy  of  the  English  admiral." 
The  pilots  made  oath  that  they  gave  no  such  advice  as  was 
imputed  to  them,  and  that  their  opinion  was  neither  followed 
nor  regarded,  the  English  officers  having  "  a  mean  idea  of 
their  capacity."  The  general  assembly  of  Massachusetts  chal 
lenged  a  formal  inquiry  into  the  affair,  and  sent  three  of  the 
pilots  to  England  to  be  interrogated,  who  waited  many  months; 
but  no  questions  were  asked,  nor  elucidations  sought  by  the 
British  court.* 

At  the  same  time  not  the  least  credit  was  openly  given  to 
the  colonies  for  their  prodigious  exertions  and  severe  losses. 
"  What,"  says  one  of  the  historians,  c(  would  be  thought  ex 
traordinary  in  any  state  of  Europe,  one  fifth  part  of  the  whole 
inhabitants  of  Massachusetts,  capable  of  bearing  arms,  were 
in  pay  that  summer,  not  vagrants,  swept,  as  in  England,  from 
the  streets  and  brothels,  but  heads  of  families,  artificers,  and 
robust  young  men,  whose  labour  was  inestimable  to  new  settle 
ments."  We  have,  on  the  subject  of  this  oppressive  business, 
the  testimony  of  Dummer  to  this  effect. f  "  Notwithstanding 
some  people  found  it  necessary  to  blame  New  England,  the 
better  to  excuse  themselves,  yet  it  has  been  acknowledged  to 

*  Hutchinson,  vol.  ii.  p,  175.  f  Defence  of  the  Charters. 


104  MILITARY   EFFORTS 

PART  I.  me  by  English  gentlemen  who  were  then  on  the  spot,  and  well 
^^^^^  experienced  in  these  affairs,  that  such  a  fleet  and  army,  wanting 
the  necsssaries  they  did,  could  not  have  been  despatched  in 
so  short  a  warning  from  any  port  of  England.  It  is  really 
astonishing,  to  consider,  that  these  little  governments  of  New 
England  should  be  able,  by  their  own  strength,  to  perform 
such  great  things  in  the  military  way." 

These  little  governments  were  not,  moreover,  prodigal  of 
men  and  money,  merely  in  the  struggles  at  their  door,  or  for 
their  own  seeming  interests.    When,  in  1703,  Jamaica,  under 
the  apprehension  of  an  invasion,  solicited  help  from  Massa 
chusetts,  that  province  sent  to  the  island,  several  companies 
of  foot,  of  which  but  few  individuals  ever  returned  to  their 
native  country.     When,  in  the  year  1705,  Nevis  was  sacked 
by  Ibberville,  New  England  spontaneously  contributed  a  large 
sum  of  money,  together  with  building  materials,  &c.  for  the 
relief  of  the  sufferers,  and  never  claimed  nor  received  retribu 
tion.      The  British  court  not  only  left  to  the  northern  colo 
nies,  the  care  and  expense  of  their  own  defence  against  the 
French  and  Indians,  and  of  the  protection  and  advancement 
of  the  general  interests  of  the  empire,  in  North  America,  but 
drew  upon  their  resources  for  the  execution  of  its  plans  of 
aggrandizement,  in  the  West  Indies.     In  1741,  three  thou 
sand  six  hundred  men  were  assessed  and  levied  upon  them, 
in  aid  of  the  expedition  of  that  year  against  the  Island  of 
Cuba;  and  they  were   at  the  whole  charge  of  bounty,  pro 
visions  and  transports  for  their  respective  quotas.     Massa 
chusetts  contributed  five  hundred  men,  of  whom  the  equip 
ment  and  transportation  cost  her  =£7000.      It  is  calculated  by 
Hutchinson,  that,  from  the  year  1675   to  1713,  the  epoch  of 
the  treaty  of  Utrecht,    five  or  six  thousand  of  the  youth  of 
Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire — the  provinces  most  ex 
posed — perished  either  by  the  hand  of  the  enemy,  or  by  dis 
tempers,  contracted  in  the  military  service.     This  judicious 
author  is  of  opinion,  that  the  people  of  New  England  bore, 
during  the  same  interval,  "  such   an  annual  burden,  as  was 
not  felt  by  any  other  subjects  of  Great  Britain."* 

3.  While  the  northern  colonies  were  putting  forth  these  ex 
traordinary  energies,  and  undergoing  so  severe  a  probation,  the 
middle  and  southern  prosecuted  their  arduous  defence,  against 
enemies  of  an  equally  fierce  and  restless  spirit;  and  were  ex 
posed  to  an  additional  scourge,  which  could  be  also  traced,  in 

*  Vol.  ii.  H.  of  M.  p.  183 


OP    THE    COLONISTS. 


105 


to  the  cupidity  of  the  mother  country.  The  conspiracy  of  the  SECT.  IV 
Indian  tribes  of  North  Carolina,  in  1712,  for  the  extermina 
tion  of  the  whites,  is  marked  by  the  massacre  of  one  hun 
dred  and  thirty-seven  settlers  about  Roanoke  alone.  The 
valour  and  conduct  of  the  militia  of  the  two  Carolinss,  gave, 
on  this  occasion,  a  final  blow  to  the  power  of  the  Tuscaroras, 
one  of  the  most  considerable  Indian  nations  of  that  quarter. 
Only  three  years  from  this  signal  exploit,  South  Carolina  was 
the  theatre  of  a  similar  conspiracy,  and  had  to  wrestle,  near 
her  capital,  with  a  still  more  formidable  tribe,  the  Yamossees. 
With  no  more  than  twelve  hundred  men  on  the  muster  roll, 
fit  to  bear  arms,  she  expelled  the  multitude  of  these  ferocious 
barbarians  from  her  soil,  having  vanquished  them  in  a  gene 
ral"  battle  of  a  most  obstinate  and  sanguinary  character.  Four 
hundred  of  her  white  inhabitants  fell  in  the  war.  There  is  an 
incident  in  its  train,  which  I  shall  not  do  amiss  to  mention. 
"  The  Assembly  of  Carolina,"  says  an  English  historian,* 
"  passed  two  acts,  to  appropriate  the  lands,  gained  by  con 
quest  from  the  Yamassees,  for  the  use  of  such  British  sub 
jects  as  should  come  over  and  settle  upon  them.  On  this 
encouragement,  five  hundred  men  from  Ireland  transported 
themselves  to  Carolina;  but  not  long  after,  in  breach  of  the 
provincial  faith,  and  to  the  entire  ruin  of  the  Irish  emigrants, 
the  proprietors  ordered  the  Indian  lands  to  be  surveyed  for 
their  own  use,  and  run  out  in  large  baronies.  The  old  settlers 
thus  losing  the  protection  of  the  new  comers,  deserted  their 
plantations,  and  again  left  the  frontiers  open  to  the  enemy. 
Many  of  the  unfortunate  Irish  emigrants,  reduced  to  misery, 
perished,  and  the  remainder  removed  to  the  northern  colonies." 
The  number  of  warriors  of  the  four  principal  Indian  na 
tions — the  Cherokees,  Choctaws,  Creeks,  and  Chickasaws — 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Georgia  and  Carolina,  are  com 
puted  to  have  been,  as  late  as  in  1733,  upwards  of  four 
teen  thousand,  not  less  redoubtable  by  their  numerical  supe 
riority,  than  their  daring  and  martial  'spirit.  The  campaigns 
which  were  made  against  them  at  subsequent  periods,  exhi 
bit  for  their  duration, — like  the  Indian  wars  of  the  northern 
and  middle  provinces, — danger  as  appalling,  and  suffering  as 
intense,  encountered  with  as  much  resolution,  and  sustained 
with  as  much  fortitude, — as  many  obstacles  overcome  with  as 
much  perseverance, — as  are  commemorated  in  the  military 
annals  of  any  people. 

*  Hewatt's  Historical  Account  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia.  Lon 
don,  p.  228. 

VOL.  I — 0 


106  MILITARY    EFFORTS 

PART  I.  Carolina  had,  at  the  same  time,  not  only  to  shake  off  an 
v^"-^w  oppressive  government,  and  extirpate  a  host  of  savages,  but  to 
protect  herself  from  a  body  of  negro  slaves,  greatly  out-num 
bering  their  masters,  and  ripe  for  revolt  and  carnage.  She 
detected,  in  1730,  a  domestic  plot,  which  looked  to  the  mas 
sacre  of  all  the  whites,  and  in  1738,  found  herself  engaged  in 
a  servile  war,  which  was  brought  to  a  speedy  issue  indeed,  but 
not  without  great  slaughter.  The  negroes  were  excited,  on 
this  occasion,  by  the  Spaniards,  who  held  out  to  them  the  pros 
pect  of  liberty,  and  received  the  runaways  into  the  military 
service  of  Spain, — the  precise  model  of  the  conduct  of  Great 
Britain  towards  the  same  colony,  during  our  revolutionary  war. 
Besides  the  mutual  invasions  between  the  Spaniards  of  Flo 
rida  and  the  Carolinians,  which  I  have  already  mentioned, 
others  of  a  later  date  might  be  cited,  in  which  the  blood  and 
treasure  of  the  latter  were  profusely  expended.  Georgia  was 
planted  in  1733.  Already  in  1740,  this  last  born  among  the 
colonies,  sent  forth  an  armament  against  St.  Augustine,  and 
two  years  after,  repelled  an  invasion  of  the  Spaniards,  who 
made  their  attack  with  a  force  of  thirty-two  sail,  and  three 
or  four  thousand  picked  men. 

From  the  establishment  of  the  French  on  the  Ohio,  in  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Virginia,  Maryland,  and 
Pennsylvania  were  cruelly  infested  with  Indian  hostilities,  and 
their  sufferings  may  be  regarded  as  due  to  'the  corruption  or 
sluggishness  of  the  British  rulers.  The  plan  early  formed  by 
France,  of  uniting  her  colonies  of  Canada  and  Louisiana,  by 
a  chain  of  forts  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Mississippi,  did 
not  escape  the  sagacity,  as  it  was  well  fitted  to  rouse  the  fears, 
of  the  colonists.  They  long  laboured  in  vain  to  obtain  the 
co-operation  of  the  British  court,  in  anticipating  the  French 
plan,  and  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  British  statesmen  to  the 
dangers  of  its  execution.*  We  have  seen  in  the  extracts 
which  I  have  made  from  the  reports  of  the  Board  of  Trade 
and  Plantations,  the  motive  which  wa^s  indulged  in  England, 
for  discouraging anglo-American  settlements  beyond  the  moun 
tains.  The  authors  of  the  Universal  History  „  acknowledge 

*  Even  before  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  British  go. 
vernment  had  been  admonished  of  this  evil  by  Dr.  Davenant,  in  the 
following-  passage  of  his  Discourse  on  the  Protection  and  Care  of 
Trade  :  "  Should  the  French  settle  at  the  disembogueing'  of  the  river 
Meschasipe,  in  the  Gulph  of  Mexico,  they  would  not  be  long-before  they 
made  themselves  masters  of  that  rich  province,  which  would  be  an  ad 
dition  to  their  strength  very  terrible  to  Europe.  But  this  would  more 
"particularly  concern  England  ;  for,  by  the  opportunity  of  that  settle 
ment,  by  erecting  forts  along  the  several  lakes  bet-ween  that  river  and  Ca 
nada,  they  may  intercept  all  the  trade  of  our  northern  plantations." 


OF    THE    COLONISTS. 


107 


u  as  u  certain  that  from  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  to  the  middle  SECT. IV 
of  the  century,  the  government  of  England  was  lulled  into  a  v^^--^- 
most  fatal  security,  whilst  that  of  France  was  making  wide 
strides  towards  a  total  acquisition  of  North  America,  by  cut 
ting  off  the  English  colonies  from  the  back  country."     The 
same  writers  teach  us,  however,  in  a  passage  which  I  am  about 
to  quote,  that  it  was  to  something  more  than  supineness  in  the 
British  councils,  that  New  York  particularly,  owed  some  of 
her  worst  distresses. 

"  Spotswood,  the  lieutenant  governor  of  Virginia,  about 
the  year  17 1 6,  a  man  of  sense  and  spirit,  finding  the  Outaouais, 
now  called  the  Twightees,  extremely  well  affectioned  towards 
the  English,  proposed  to  purchase  some  of  their  lands  upon 
the  river  Ohio,  and  erect  a  company  for  opening  a  trade  to 
the  southward,  westward,  and  northward  of  the  river  with  the 
savages.  This  was  at  once  a  rational  and  practicable  scheme, 
but  the  execution  of  it  depended  entirely  upon  the  favourable 
dispositions  of  the  natives  for  the  English,  which  might  have 
been  secured,  by  the  punctual  payment  of  the  purchase  mo 
ney  or  effects.  This  noble  project  clashed  with  the  views  of 
the  French,  who  had  by  this  time,  formed  their  great  schemes 
upon  the  Mississippi,  and  the  ministry  of  king  George  I.  as 
we  have  already  hinted,  having  reasons  for  keeping  well  with 
that  court,  the  project  was  not  only  dropped,  but  the  French 
were  encouraged  to  build  the  fort  of  Crown  Poinl^  upon  the  ter 
ritory  of  New  For/c."* 

4.  For  Europe,  the  achievements  of  which  I  have  spoken, 
however  noble,  and  in  themselves  worthy  of  renown,  were,  in 
a  great  degree,  obscure  and  insignificant;  and  England  might 
even  yet  cheat  herself  into  the  belief,  that  the  Provincials 
were  as  humble  in  their  military,  as  she  represented  them 
to  be  in  their  political  and  literary  capacities.  But,  an  event  hap 
pened  in  1746,  after  which,  this  delusion  could  not  co&lnue, 
without  taking  the  character  of  infatuation;  nor  the  continent 
of  Europe  fail  to  be  struck,  with  the  singular  prowess  of  the 
transatlantic  people,  and  to  feel  the  decisive  Weight  which, 
although  of  a  new  creation  as  it  were,  they  already  threw  into 
the  scale  of  Great  Britain.  It  will  be  at  once  under- 

*  "Spotswood,"  says  Burke,  in  his  History  of  Virginia,  vol.  iii.  ch. 
ii.  "  gave  offence  to  the  British  ministry,  by  urging  with  too  much 
boldness,  the  necessity  of  establishing  a  chain  of  forts  for  the  protec 
tion  of  the  country  between  the  Apalachian  mountains  and  the  Missis 
sippi."  This  able  governor  was  dismissed,  for  urging  at  the  same 
time,  the  propriety  of  a  claim  for  compensation,  which  was  preferred 
by  some  of  the  provincials,  who  had  accompanied  him  on  an  exploring 
arty  beyond  the  mountains. 


108  MILITARY    EFFORTS 

PART  I.  stood,  that  1  allude  to  the  capture  of  the  celebrated  fortress  of 
•-,.^-v-^*'  Louisbourg,  nt-xl  to  Quebec,  the  strong  hold  of  the  French  in 
the  western  hemisphere — the  key  to  Nova  Scotia — the  spring 
of  every  evil  to  the  British  fisheries  and  trade, — and  from 
the  influence  of  its  position,  and  the  extent  and  immense 
expense  of  its  works,  which  were  thought  impregnable,  com 
monly  styled  the  Dunkirk  of  America.  At  a  moment  when 
France  was  without  a  fear  for  its  safety,  and  England  had 
not  even  raised  her  hopes  to  its  conquest,  (lie  project  of  re 
ducing  it  was  conceived  in  Massachusetts,  and  adopted,  with 
correspondent  boldness,  by  the  other  provinces  of  New  Eng 
land.  A  body  of  near  five  thousand  men  was  immediately 
raised,  and  a  fleet  equipped  for  the  purpose, — all  without  the 
concurrence,  or  even  countenance,  of  the  mother  country: 
An  expedition,  composed  of  the  greater  part  of  the  naval 
means  of  the  projectors,  and  of  a  body  of  freeholders,  thriving 
artificers,  and  sons  of  wealthy  farmers,  led  by  a  New  England 
merchant,  had  actually  been  despatched,  before  any  British 
vessels  arrived  to  join  in  the  attempt.  I  need  not  repeat  the 
details  of  its  wonderful  success,  so  well  known  to  every  reader 
of  modern  history;  but  I  ought  to  stale  the  opinions  pronounced 
by  some  of  the  English  annalists,  concerning  the  general  con 
duct  of  the  Provincials  on  the  occasion,  and  the  importance  oi 
the  exploit.  The  design  pleads  for  itself  too  strongly  to  re 
quire  certificates,  and  the  merit  of  it  was  never  claimed  by 
Great  Britain. 

a  The  New  England  troops,"  says  an  English  authority  re 
ceived  as  the  highest,  at  the  time,*  "within  the  compass  of 
twenty-three  days  from  the  time  of  their  first  landing,  erected 
five  fascine  batteries  against  the  town,  mounted  with  cannon  of 
forty-two,  twenty-two,  and  eighteen  pounds  shot,  mortars  of 
thirteen,  eleven,  and  nine  inches  diameter,  with  some  cohorns; 
all  which  were  transported  by  land^  with  incredible  labour 
and  difficulty;  most  of  them  above  two  miles:  all  the  ground 
over  which  they  were  drawn,  except  small  patches  or  hills  of 
rocks,  was  a  deep  morass,  in  which,  while  the  cannon  were 
upon  wheels,  they  several  times  sunk  so  deep,  as  not  only  to 
bury  the  carriages,  but  their  whole  bodies.  Horses  and  oxen 
could  not  be  employed  in  this  service,  but  all  must  be  drawn 
by  men,  up  to  the  knees  in  mud;  the  nights  in  which  the  work 
was  done,  were  cold  and  foggy,  their  tents  bad,  there  being 
no  proper  materials  for  tents  to  be  had  in  New  England  at  the 
outset  of  the  expedition.  But  notwithstanding  these  difficul- 

*  Memoirs  of  the  Last  War  in  America. 


OF    THE    COLONISTS, 


109 


ties,  and  many  of  the  men  being  taken  down  with  fluxes,  so  SECT.  IV 
that  at  one  lime  there  were  fifteen  hundred  incapable  of  duty,  v-^v-^* 
they  went  on  without  being  discouraged  or  murmuring,  and 
transported  the  cannon  over  those  ways,  which  the  French  had 
always  thought  impassable  for  such  heavy  weights;  and  besides 
this,  they  had  all   their  provisions  and  heavy  ammunition, 
which  they  daily  made  use  of,  to  bring  from  the  camp  over 
the  same  way  upon  their  backs." 

"  The  people  of  New  England,"  says  Tindal,  the  conti- 
nuator  of  Rapin,*  "  behaved  on  this  occasion  with  great  spi 
rit.  Three  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty  volunteers,  all 
of  them  well  affected  to  the  expedition,  assembled  and  em 
barked  at  Boston.  Though  neither  the  militia  nor  their  com 
manders  had  ever  seen  any  military  service,  they  proceeded 
with  all  the  regularity  and  intrepidity  of  veterans.  The  grand 
approaches  to  the  body  of  the  place  were  to  be  carried  on  from 
the  southern  side.  Here  the  service  was  extremely  laborious; 
the  guns  for  mounting  the  batteries  being  dragged  through  bogs 
and  incumbered  places  by  the  landsmen,  for  above  two  miles. 
They  succeeded,  however,  to  admiration,  and  by  assistance 
of  the  officers  and  engineers  of  the  marines,  and  some  lent  tlicm 
by  the  commodore,  they  mounted  a  large  train  of  artillery  on 
an  eminence  called  the  Green  Hill,  about  three  quarters  of  a 
mile  from  the  place.  The  garrison  having  made  a  resolute 
defence,  and  a  general  assault  being  expected,  surrendered  on 
the  13th  of  June." 

"  It  is  sufficient  to  state,"  observe  the  authors  of  the 
Universal  History,  "  that,  the  colony  of  New  England 
gave  peace  to  Europe,  by  raising,  arming,  and  transporting, 
four  thousand  men,  who  took  Louisbourg,  which  proved  an 
equivalent,  at  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapellc,  for  all  the  suc 
cesses  of  the  French  upon  the  continent  of  Europe.  In  the  late 
war  with  France,  which  was  concluded  in  the  year  1762, 
they  exerted  the  same  glorious  spirit  against  the  common  ene 
my,  and  greatly  contributed  to  that  extension  of  territory  in 
North  America,"  &c. 

The  following  is  the  testimony  of  Smollet,f  accompanied 
by  some  remarks,  which  I  am  not  sorry  to  produce  at  the  same 
time.  "  The  most  important  achievement  of  the  war  of  1744, 
xvas  the  conquest  of  Louisbourg.  The  natives  of  New  Eng 
land  acquired  great  glory  for  the  success  of  this  enterprise. 
Britain,  which  had  in  some  instances,  behaved  like  a  step 
mother  to  her  colonies,  was  now  convinced  of  their  impor- 

*  Vol.  xxi.  p.  157.  t  Continuation  of  Hume. 


110 


MILITARY    EFFORTS 


PART  i.  tance,  and  treated  those,  as  brethren  whom  she  had  too  long  con 
v^^^-/  sidered  as  aliens  and  rivals.     Circumstanced  as  the  nation  is, 
the  legislature  cannot  too  tenderly  cherish  the  interests  of  the 
British  plantations  in  America.  They  are  inhabited  by  a  brave, 
hardy,  industrious  people,  animated  with  an  active  spirit  of 
commerce,  and  inspired  with  a  noble  zeal  for  liberty  and  inde 
pendence."  This  historian,  in  the  same  breath  in  which  these 
fine  sentiments  are  uttered,  does  not  hesitate  to  assert,  that 
"  the  reduction  of  Louisbourg  was  chiefly  owing  to  the  vigi 
lance  and  activity  of  Mr.  Warren,  a  British  commodore,  and 
that  the  operations  of  the  siege,  were  wholly  conducted,  by  the 
engineers  and  officers  who  commanded  the  British  marines!" 
No  effort,  in  fact,  was  spared  in  England,  to  perpetuate  the 
affair  under  this  aspect.      The  agent  deputed    by  the  go 
vernment  of  Massachusetts  to  solicit  reimbursement  for  the 
expenses  of  the  expedition,  wrote  thus  from  London  to  the 
secretary  of  the  general  court  of  that  province:  u  Upon  my 
arrival  in  England,  the  first  newspaper  I  met  with  on  the  road 
contained  an  address  to  his  majesty,  from  a  sea-port  which 
trades  to  Boston;  wherein  they  congratulated  his  majesty  on 
the  success  of  his  navy,  in  taking  Cape  Breton,  without  mak 
ing  the  least  mention  of  the  land  forces  employed  on  that  oc 
casion.     When  I  came  to  London,  I  there  found  the  effects  of 
the  arts  used  to  have  the  conquest  deemed  a  naval  acquisition, 
as  it  was  afterwards  in  the  most  public  manner,  declared  to 
be  by  a  noble  lord  then  in  the  ministry.     I  determined  to  at 
tempt  to  establish  the  credit  of  the  New  England  forces,  and 
for  that  end  drew  up  a  petition  to  the  secretary  of  state,  pray 
ing  that  the  account  of  their  behaviour,  taken  on  the  spot  by 
the  governor,  and  transmitted  to  the  secretary  of  state,  might 
be  published  by  authority; — after  several  montlis  solicitation, 
this  was  promised  me;  but  I  soon  afterwards  received  such 
treatment  as  was  in  effect  openly  declaring,  that  it  was  deter 
mined  not  to  comply  with  that  promise; — before  I  could  pre 
vail,  I  was  forced  into  a  sharper  contest  than  I  should  ever 
choose  to  be  again  concerned  in."* 

Nay,  Mr.  Warren  himself  deposed  on  oath,  in  the  Higli 
Court  of  Admiralty,  seventeen  months  after  the  event,  "  that, 
with  the  assistance  of  his  majesty's  ships,  &c.  he,  the  depo 
nent,  did  subdue  the  whole  island  of  Cape  Breton:"t — And 
we  shall,  by  and  by,  find,  upon  the  testimony  of  one  of  the 

*  Letter  of  Mr.  Bollaa,  of  April  23, 1752,  preserved  in  the  first  volume 
of  the  Collections-ofihe  Mass.  His.  Society, 
f  Registry  of  the  Hig-lfCourfof  Admiralty  of  England,  Sept.  29, 1747 


OF   THE    COLONISTS.  Ill 

ministry,  that  at  the  British  court,  he,  the  same  deponent,  SECT.  IV. 
represented  the  Provincials,  as  having  displayed  on  the  oc'  a-  s-^*v"^*/ 
sion,  arrant  and  ludicrous  cowardice!  To  make  the  true  spirit 
and  value  of  these  allegations  better  understood,  I  am  tempted 
to  transcribe  a  few  passages  from  Hutchinson,  whose  impar 
tiality,  as  far  as  New  England  is  concerned,  will  hardly  be 
questioned,  and  who  wrote  from  personal  knowledge. 

u  The  23d  March,  1745,  an  express-boat,  sent  to  commo 
dore  Warren,  in  the  West  Indies,  to  request  his  co-operation 
in  the  attempt  upon  Louisbourg,  returned  to  Boston.  As  this 
was  a  Provincial  expedition,  without  orders  from  England, 
and  as  his  small  squadron  had  been  weakened  by  the  loss  of 
the  Weymouth,  Mr.  Warren  excused  himself  from  any  con 
cern  in  the  affair.  This  answer  necessarily  struck  a  damp 
into  the  governor,  and  the  other  persons  who  were  made  ac 
quainted  with  it  before  the  Provincial  fleet  sailed.  On  the 
23d  April,  however,  the  commodore  arrived.  It  seems  that 
in  two  or  three  days  after  the  express  sailed  from  the  West 
Indies  for  Boston,  the  Hind  sloop  brought  orders  to  Mr.  War 
ren  to  repair  to  Boston,  with  what  ships  could  be  spared,  and 
to  concert  measures  with  Mr.  Shirley  for  his  majesty's  general 
service  in  North  America.  Whether  the  land  or  sea  force 
had  the  greatest  share  in  the  acquisition,  may  be  judged  from 
the  relation  of  facts.  The  army,  with  infinite  labour  and  fa 
tigue  to  themselves,  harassed  and  distressed  the  enemy,  and 
with  perseverance  a  few  weeks  or  days  longer,  must  have 
compelled  a  surrender.  It  is  very  doubtful  whether  the  ships 
could  have  lain  long  enough  before  the  walls  to  have  carried 
the  place  by  storm,  or  whether,  notwithstanding  the  appear 
ance  of  a  design  to  do  it,  they  would  have  thought  it  advisable 
to  attempt  it;  it  is  certain  they  prevented  the  arrival  of  the 
Vigilant,  took  away  all  hopes  of  further  supply  and  succour, 
and  it  is  very  probable  the  fears  of  a  storm  might  accelerate 
the  capitulation." 

"  The  commodore  was  willing  to  carry  away  a  full  share  of 
the  glory  of  this  action.  It  was  made  a  question  whether  the 
keys  of  the  town  should  be  delivered  to  him  or  to  the  general, 
and  whether  the  sea  or  land  forces  should  first  enter.  The 
officers  of  the  army  say  ihey  prevailed." 

"  As  it  was  a  time  of  year  to  expect  French  vessels  from 
all  parts  to  Louisbourg,  the  French  flag  was  kept  flying,  to 
decoy  them  in.  Two  East  India,  and  one  South  Sea  ship, 
supposed  to  be  altogether  of  the  value  of  ^=600,000  sterling, 
were  taken  by  the  squadron  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbour,  into 
which  they  would  undoubtedly  have  entered." 


112  MILITARY    EFFORTS 

PART.  i.  "  With  great  colour  the  army  might  have  claimed  a  share 
*^*^,-~^  with  the  men-of-war  in  these  rich  prizes.  Some  of  the  officers 
expected  a  claim  would  have  been  laid  in,  but  means  were 
found  to  divert  it,  nor  was  any  part  decreed  to  the  vessels  of  war 
in  the  Province  service,  except  a  small  sum  to  the  brig  Boston 
Packet,  Captain  Fletcher,  who  being  chased  by  the  South  Sea 
ship,  led  her  directly  under  the  command  of  the  guns  of  one 
of  the  men-of-war."* 

I  would  add  to  these  facts,  that  reimbursement  was  obtain 
ed  from  Parliament  after  seven  years  of  urgent  solicitation. 
The  picture  of  sordidness  and  chicane,  which  is  presented  by 
the  Massachusetts  agent,  in  his  account  of  the  cavils  and 
delays  interposed  to  defeat  his  errand,  is  as  curious  as  it  is 
disgusting,  when  referred  to  the  administration  of  so  great  an 
empire.  "  The  government  of  Massachusetts,"  says  the 
author  whom  I  have  last  quoted,  "was  still,  in  1747,  soli 
citing  for  the  reimbursement  of  the  charge  in  taking  Cape 
Breton,  and  by  the  address,  assiduity,  and  fidelity  of  William 
Bollan,  esquire,  who  was  one  of  the  agents  of  the  province 
for  that  purpose,  there  was  a  hopeful  prospect  that  the  full  sum, 
about  =£180,000  sterling,  would  be  obtained." 

"  Some  of  the  ministry  thought  it  sufficient  to  grant  such  sum 
as  would  redeem  the  bills  issued  for  the  expedition,  &c.  at 
their  depreciated  value,  and  Mr.  Kilby,  the  other  agent, 
seemed  to  despair  of  obtaining  more;  but  Mr.  Bollan,  who 
bad  an  intimate  knowledge  of  our  public  affairs,  set  the  injus 
tice  of  this  proposal  in  a  clear  light,  and  made  it  evident,  that 
(he  depreciation  of  the  bills  was  as  effectually  a  charge  bornt: 
by  the  people,  as  if  the  same  proportion  of  bills  had  been 
drawn  in  by  taxes,  and  refused  all  proposals  of  accommodat 
ing,  insisting  upon  the  full  value  of  the  bills  when  issued."! 
This  haggling  with  the  colonial  agents,  where  so  signal  a  ser 
vice  was  in  question, — one  which  purchased  an  indispensable 
peace  for  Great  Britain — betrays  a  spirit  which  none  can  be 
at  a  loss  to  understand,  especially  when  it  is  recollected, 
what  immense  sums  were  lavished  by  her  in  support  oi 
the  continental  nations.  u  If  a  continent  must  be  supplied,"1' 
was  the  language  of  the  addresses  to  the  king,  from  some  parts 
of  England,  u  if  our  spoils  must  be  shared,  let  America 
partake,  rather  than  ungrateful  Germany,  the  sepulchre  o( 
British  interest."  America  did  not,  however,  partake,  as  we 
have  seen,  until  a  much  later  period,  and  then  partook  in  n 
very  different  degree  and  form.  She  received  scarcely  a 

*  Vol.  ii.  chap.  iv.  j  Ibid. 


OF    THE    COLONISTS.  113 

soldier  for  her  defence,  and  had  her  pittance  of  retribution  SECT.  IV. 
doled  out  to  her  with  huckstering  parsimony;  while  Hanover  ^-^-v^*' 
was  defended  with  a  profusion  of  blood  and  treasure,  which, 
as  the  historians  truly  remark,  astonished  all  Europe.  The 
immense  subsidy  even  preceded  the  effort  of  the  fickle  ally  in 
Germany: — The  slender  reimbursement  followed  haltingly, 
the  invaluable  service  of  the  loyal  subject  in  America.  France 
stood  forth  herself,  and  undertook  the  whole  defence  of  her 
American  possessions:  Great  Britain  left  the  part  of  princi 
pals  to  hers,  acting  merely  as  their  occasional,  and  always 
reluctant  auxiliary. 

By  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  of  1748,  the  conquest  so  , 
hardly  earned,  and  so  dearly  prized  by  the  provincials,  was 
surrendered  to  France,  as  an  equivalent — the  only  one  which 
Great  Britain  had  to  offer, — for  the  towns  in  Flanders  taken 
by  the  French  from  her  German  ally.*  And  the  achievement 
of  the  colonies  proved  not  merely  sterile  for  their  interests, 
as  it  was  rendered  by  this  issue,  but  the  cause  of  a  vital  dan 
ger,  and  fearful  anxiety  during  many  weeks;  for,  the  French 
court,  roused  by  the  loss  of  Louisbourg,  directed  against  their 
coast,  the  most  powerful  armament  which  had  ever  been  sent 
into  the  North  American  seas;  and  which,  only  an  unparal 
leled  train  of  disastrous  casualties,  prevented  from  committing 
extensive  mischief.  The  activity  and  resolution  of  New  Eng 
land,  in  preparing  the  means  of  defence,  on  this  occasion, 
corresponded  with  her  previous  career. 

Immediately  before  this  invasion  was  announced,  eight 
thousand  two  hundred  men  had  been  voted  by  the  colonies, 
and  the  greater  part  of  them  raised,  at  the  requisition  of  the 
British  ministry,  for  a  general  invasion  of  Canada,  which  the 
same  ministry  abandoned  the  following  year,  leaving  the 
colonies  to  defray  the  expense  of  the  levy.  This  abortive 
scheme,  and  the  Louisbourg  expedition,  involved  them  in  the 
greatest  financial  embarrassments. 


5.  It  was  not  denied  in  England,  that  the  reduction  of 
Louisbourg  preserved  Nova  Scotia,  and  enabled  the  mother 
country  to  make  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  :  nor  could  it 
fail  to  be  perceived  from  the  affair,  how  materially  the  colonies 
might  contribute  to  give  her  a  final  ascendancy  over  her  great 
rival.  Acknowledgments  and  praise  were  not,  therefore,  al 
together  withheld;  but  they  were  so  bestowed,  as  to  betray  an 
exasperation  of  those  feelings,  of  which  I  have  particularly 


*  See  Note  G. 
VOL.  I.— P 


114 


MILITARY    EFFORTS 


PART  I.  treated  in  my  first  section.  Scarcely  two  years  elapsed^ 
<^~v-^^  before  the  bill  already  mentioned,  for  enforcing  all  the  king's 
instructions  in  the  colonies,  was  brought  into  Parliament;  and, 
at  the  distance  of  two  years  more,  the  new  plan  for  "  increas 
ing  their  dependence"  began  to  bear  fruit,  in  the  prohibition 
of  iron  and  steel  manufactories.  Among  the  jealous  and  un 
natural  returns  for  their  military  efforts  in  the  war  of  1744,  I 
may  enumerate  the  clause  inserted  by  Parliament,  (1754,)  in 
the  mutiny  bill,  subjecting  all  officers  and  soldiers  raised  in 
America,  by  the  authority  of  the  respective  governors  or  go 
vernments,  to  the  same  rules  and  articles  of  war,  and  the  same 
penalties  and  punishments,  as  those  to  which  the  British  forces 
were  liable.  A  generous  opposition  was,  indeed,  made  to  this 
measure  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Some  of  the  objections 
which  were  uttered  in  the  debate  on  the  occasion,  are  worthy, 
in  an  historical  point  of  view,  of  being  brought  to  the  notice  of 
my  readers.  I  transcribe  from  the  Reports,  those  of  Mr.  Ro 
bert  Viner,  and  of  Mr.  Henry  Fox,  the  minister  of  the  day. 

"  Mr.  Robert  Viner  said — Our  regiments,  so  far,  at  least, 
as  relates  to  the  common  soldiers,  are  usually  composed  of  the 
very  lowest  and  most  abandoned  of  our  people;  but  with  re 
spect  to  the  troops  now  raised,  or  that  may  hereafter  be  raised 
in  America,  the  case  is  very  different:  many  of  them  may  not, 
perhaps,  be  able  to  support  themselves  in  the  service  of  their 
country,  without  being  paid  by  their  country;  but  many  of 
them  have  engaged,  and  many  of  them  will,  I  hope,  engage, 
merely  for  the  sake  of  serving  their  country;  they  have  senti 
ments  of  religion,  they  have  sentiments  of  honour,  and  by  such 
sentiments  they  may  be  kept  under  proper  discipline,  without 
such  rigorous  punishments  as  are  to  be  inflicted  by  this  bilL 
upon  our  British  mercenary  soldiers." 

"  This,  Sir,  we  may  be  convinced  of,  from  the  whole  tenor 
of  our  American  history.  How  many  wars  have  our  planta 
tions  from  time  to  time  been  engaged  in:  Wars  more  cruel,  and 
more  liable  to  ambuscade  and  surprises,  than  any  we  have  in 
Europe,  and  consequently,  such  as  have  always  required  a 
stricter  discipline,  if  possible,  than  is  necessary  in  this  part 
of  the  world;  and  yet  if  we  look  into  their  militia  laws,  we 
shall  find,  that  they  have  but  very  few  military  crimes,  and 
that  most  of  their  military  punishments  are  only  a  very  mode 
rate  fine,  or  a  very  moderate  corporal  punishment,  upon  such 
as  cannot  pay  their  fine;  nay,  I  do  not  know,  that  any  of  our 
plantations  ever  extended  a  military  punishment  to  life  01 
limb;  and  yet  they  have  hitherto  carried  on,  and  ended  all 
their  wars  with  glory  and  success.  So  powerful,  Sir,  are  the 


OF    THE    COLONISTS, 


115 


motives  of  virtue,  honour,  and  glory,  where  proper  care  is  SECT.  i\r. 
taken  to  cultivate  them  in  the  breast  of  the  soldier,  or  rather,  ^-^v-^~/ 
where  care  is  not  taken  to  eradicate  all  such  principles,  by  the 
multitude  and  severity  of  military  punishments." 

"  Mr.  Henry  Fox  said — I  shall  grant  that  their  militia  have 
generally  behaved  pretty  well,  in  all  the  wars  they  have  been 
engaged  in;  they  have,  indeed,  on  all  occasions,  shown  un 
daunted  courage;  as  Englishmen,  I  hope,  always  will." 

The  mutiny  act  proved  so  odious  to  the  colonists,  as  seriously 
to  obstruct  the  public  service,  and  to  render  it  necessary  for 
some  of  the  governors  to  give  public  assurances,  that  the 
militia,  when  called  to  march  to  the  western  frontiers,  should 
not  be  subject  to  its  provisions.  Ft  was  not  the  only  griev 
ance  of  the  description,  and  by  the  imposition  of  which  the 
mother  country  sacrificed  justice  and  policy,  to  pride,  or 
routine.  By  an  act  of  Parliament,  the  general,  or  field 
officers  of  the  colonial  troops,  had  no  rank  with  the  general 
and  field  officers  who  served  by  commission  from  the  king; 
and  a  captain  or  other  inferior  officer  of  the  British  forces, 
took  precedence  of  the  provincial  officers  of  the  like  grade, 
though  the  commissions  of  the  latter  were  of  prior  date. 
Many  attempts  had  been  made,  at  an  early  period,  to  put  the 
militia  at  the  disposal  of  the  royal  governors,  but  always  with 
out  success.  The  failure  of  one  of  these  attempts  in  Connec 
ticut,  in  1693,  was  attended  with  circumstances  which  deserve 
to  be  cherished  in  our  history.  They  are  thus  related  by 
the  historian  Trumbull,  in  his  homely  though  impressive  way. 

"  Colonel  Benjamin  Fletcher,  governor  of  New  York,  had 
received  a  commission  entirely  inconsistent  with  the  charter 
rights,  and  the  safety  of  the  colonies.  He  was  vested  with 
plenary  powers  of  commanding  the  whole  militia  of  Con 
necticut  and  the  neighbouring  provinces.  He  insisted  on  the 
command  of  the  militia  of  Connecticut.  As  this  was  ex 
pressly  given  to  the  colony  charter,  the  legislature  would  not 
submit  to  his  requisition." 

"  The  colony  wished  to  serve  his  majesty's  interest,  and, 
as  far  as  possible,  consistently  with  their  chartered  rights,  to 
maintain  a  good  understanding  with  governor  Fletcher.  Wil 
liam  Pitkin,  Esq.  was,  therefore,  sent  to  New  York,  to  treat 
and  make  terms  with  him  respecting  the  militia,  until  his 
majesty's  pleasure  should  be  further  known.  But  no  terms 
could  be  made  with  him  short  of  an  explicit  submission  of 
the  militia  to  his  command." 

"  On  the  26th  of  October  he  came  to  Hartford,  while  the 
assembly  were  sitting,  and,  in  his  majesty's  name,  demanded 


116  MILITARY   EFFORTS 

PART.  I.  their  submission  of  the  militia  to  his  command,  as  they  would 
v-^-v-*^'  answer  it  to  his  majesty;  and  that  they  would  give  him  a 
speedy  answer  in  one  word,  yes  or  no.  He  subscribed  him 
self  his  majesty's  lieutenant,  and  commander  in  chief  of  the 
militia,  and  of  all  the  forces  by  sea  or  land,  and  of  all  the 
forts  and  places  of  strength  in  the  colony  of  Connecticut. 
He  ordered  the  militia  of  Hartford  under  arms,  that  he  might 
beat  up  for  volunteers.  It  was  judged  expedient  to  call  the 
trainbands  in  Hartford,  together;  but  the  assembly  insisted, 
that  the  command  of  the  militia  was  expressly  vested  by 
charter  in  the  governor  and  company;  and  that  they  could  by 
no  means,  consistently  with  their  just  rights,  and  the  common 
safety,  resign  it  into  any  other  hands.  They  insinuated,  that 
his  demands  were  an  invasion  of  their  essential  privileges, 
and  subversive  of  their  constitution." 

u  Upon  this,  colonel  Bayard,  by  his  excellency's  command, 
sent  a  ieUer  into  the  assembly,  declaring,  thai  his  excellency 
had  no  design  upon  the  civil  rights  of  the  colony;  but  would 
leave  them  in  all  respects  as  he  found  shem.  In  Mie  name  of 
his  excellency,  he  tendered  a  commission  to  governor  Treat, 
empowering  him,  to  command  the  militia  of  the  colony.  He 
declared,  that  his  excellency  insisted,  that  they  should  ac 
knowledge  it  an  essential  right,  inherent  in  his  majesty,  to 
command  the  militia;  and  that  he  was  determined  not  to  set 
his  foot  out  of  the  colony,  until  he  had  seen  his  majesty's 
commission  obeyed:  That  he  would  issue  his  proclamation, 
showing  the  means  he  had  taken  to  give  ease  and  satisfaction 
to  his  majesty's  subjects  of  Connecticut,  and  that  he  would 
distinguish  the  disloyal  from  the  rest." 

"  The  assembly,  nevertheless,  would  not  give  up  the  com 
mand  of  the  militia;  nor  would  governor  Treat  receive  a 
commission  from  colonel  Fletcher." 

"  The  trainbands  of  Hartford  assembled,  and,  as  the  tra 
dition  is,  while  captain  Wadsworth,  the  senior  officer,  was 
walking  in  front  of  the  companies,  and  exercising  the  sol 
diers,  colonel  Fletcher  ordered  his  commission  and  instruc 
tions  to  be  read.  Captain  Wadsworth  instantly  commanded, 
"  beat  the  drums,"  and  there  was  such  a  roaring  of  them, 
that  nothing  else  could  be  heard.  Colonel  Fletcher  com 
manded  silence.  But  no  sooner  had  Bayard  made  an  attempt 
to  read  again,  than  Wadsworth  cried,  "  Drum,  drum,  I 
say."  The  drummers  understood  their  business,  and  in 
stantly  beat  up  with  all  the  art  and  life  of  which  they  were 
masters.  "  Silence,  silence,"  said  the  colonel.  No  sooner 
was  there  a  pause,  than  Wadsworth  spoke  with  great  earnest- 


OF    THE    COLONISTS.  117 

ness,  "  Drum,  drum,  I  say;"  and  turning  to  his  excellency,  SECT  IV. 
said,  "  If  I  am  interrupted  again,  I  will  make  the  sun 
through  you  in  a  moment."  He  spoke  with  so  much  energv  in 
his  voice,  and  meaning  in  his  countenance,  that  no  further  at 
tempts  were  made  to  read,  or  enlist  men.     Such  numbers  of 
people  collected  together,  and  their  spirits  appeared  so  high, 
that  the  governor  and  his  suite  judged  it  expedient,  soon  to 
leave  the  town  and  return  to  New  York."* 

6.  After  the  colonies  had  completely  acquired  the  Atlantic 
territory,  by  purchase  and  conquest,  without  pecuniary  or  mili 
tary  aid  from  the  government  of  the  mother  country,  peace 
was  the  natural  and  fair  fruit  of  their  exertions;  and  it  must 
appear,  abstractedly,  a  gross  injustice  and  hardship,  that  they 
should  be  deprived  of  that  inestimable  blessing  by  the  broils 
of  Europe.  The  case  assumes  a  complexion  of  greater 
wrong  and  oppression,  when  we  reflect,  that  the  wars  in  which 
they  were  implicated  against  their  European  neighbours,  arose 
out  of  the  culpable  ignorance  of  the  parent  states,  respecting 
American  geography.  The  limits  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  in 
general,  the  boundaries  of  the  French  and  English  possessions 
in  America,  were,  with  a  shameful  indifference  to  the  welfare 
of  the  colonists,  left  by  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  unde 
cided  and  indeterminable.  Hence,  even  before  it  suited  the 
convenience  of  fhe  metropolitan  countries  to  break,  in  Europe, 
through  the  mere  truce  consequent  upon  that  treaty,  their  Ame 
rican  dependencies  had  begun  to  vindicate  by  the  sword  their 
irreconcilable  pretensions  to  territory. 

The  treaty  produced  no  interruption  in  the  encroachments 
of  the  French  of  Canada.  They  pursued  unremittingly  their 
designs  upon  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  western  regions;  and  em 
ployed  force  for  their  purpose,  where  force  was  requisite. 
They  seized  upon  the  disputed  parts  of  Acadia;  fortified  them 
selves  on  the  lakes  and  the  line  of  the  Ohio;  concluded 
alliances  with  the  Indian  tribes  of  those  regions;  plundered 
and  destroyed  the  trading  establishments  of  the  British,  and 
made  hostile  incursions  from  their  forts  into  the  Virginia  li 
mits;  while  the  English  colonies,  though  full  of  alarms  at  their 
progress,  and  smarting  under  their  blows,  were  restrained  by 
their  sense  of  subordination  to  the  government  of  the  mother 
country,  from  taking,  at  once,  the  measures  of  offence  which 
the  provocation  justified,  and  their  safety  seemed  to  exact. 
"  It  cannot  be  dissembled,"  say  the  authors  of  the  Modern 

*  Book  i.  chap.  xvi. 


118  MILITARY    EFFORTS 

PART  i.    History,  "  that  the  state  of  parties  in  England  at  this  time  \\i\s 

^^v-^'  unfavourable  to  any  vigorous  steps  against  the  French.    The 

English  Americans  had  not  yet,  in  1753,  ventured  to  attack 

the  French  themselves,  and  this  forbearance  laid  them  under 

inexpressible  advantages."* 

Thus  were  the  colonists  prevented,  by  mal-administralion 
in  Great  Britain,  from  averting  the  heavy  evils  they  after 
wards  suffered  from  the  strong  footing  which  the  French,  more 
wisely  and  honestly  directed,  were  enabled  to  secure  on  the 
Ohio.     The  American  governors,  and  particularly  Mr.  Din- 
widdie,  lieutenant  governor  of  Virginia,  tried,  by  "many  spi 
rited  speeches,  messages,  and  despatches,"!  to  rouse  the  British 
ministry  to  a  sense  of  its  duty  and  of  the  national  interest; 
until,  finding  their  representations  likely   to  remain  unpro 
ductive,  they  could  hesitate  no  longer  about  exerting  their 
own  strength  to  dislodge  the  enemy.    Dinwiddie  sent  first,  in 
1753,  a  messenger, — one  major  Washington,  as  the  Universal 
History  styles  him, — to  summon  the  French  to  evacuate  their 
posts  on  the  Ohio;  and  upon  receiving  a  haughty  refusal,  raised 
and  despatched  a  regiment  under  the  command  of  this  now 
transcendant  name,  to  establish  the  British  rights  in  that  quar 
ter.     The  expedition  was  unfortunate,  and  no  better  success, 
for  the  moment,  attended  the  similar  movements  of  the  northern 
colonies. 

It  was,  however,  recommended  from  England,  that  "  the 
British  settlements  should  unite  in  some  scheme  of  common  de 
fence,  in  the  general  and  open  war  which  was  seen  to  be  ine 
vitable."     The  arrangement  proposed  to  them  by  the  mother 
country,   at  that  critical  moment,  when  a  spirit  of  generosity 
would  have  dictated  a  particular  tenderness  for  their  liberties, 
involved  the  sacrifice  of  their  main  political  privilege — exemp 
tion  from  taxation  by  parliament.  I  need  not  relate  how  this  was 
resisted;  nor  dwell  again  upon  the  well  known  Albany  plan  of 
union;  but  there  is  one  circumstance  in  its  history  which  ought 
not  to  be  pretermitted.  The  leaders  of  the  Provincial  assemblies 
were  earnestly  6f  opinion,  and  declared  without  reserve,  that, 
if  it  were  adopted,  they  could  undertake  to  defend  themselves 
from  the  French,  without  any  assistance  from  Great  Britain. 
They  required  but  to  be  left  to  raise  and  employ  their  own 
supplies,  in  their  own  way,  under  the  auspices  of  a  governor 
appointed  by  the  crown,  to  effect  their  permanent  security,  and 
even  predominance  on  this  continent. 


Vol.  xl.  p.  196.  f  Ibid. 


OF   THE    COLONISTS.  119 

7.  In   1755,  Massachusetts  levied,  in  the  space  of  two  SECT.  IV. 

months,  at  the  Instigation  and  expense  of  the  crown,  a  body .\^*~*~^~> 
of  three  thousand  men,  and  by  this  force,  joined  with  a  few 
hundred  regulars  from  Britain,  the  French  were  completely 
expelled  from  Nova  Scotia.  The  British  ministry  determined 
about  the  same  time  on  a  decisive  effort,  by  sending  over  troops 
for  the  destruction  of  all  the  French  posts,  which  had  been  es 
tablished  within  the  immense  region  to  which  the  British  crown 
laid  claim  in  America.  They  committed  the  enterprise  to  ge 
neral  Braddock,  of  fatal  memory,  who  landed  in  Virginia  early 
in  that  year,  with  two  regiments  of  British  regulars;  and  in  the 
beginning  of  the  summer,  set  out,  reinforced  by  a  body  of 
Virginia  militia,  and  friendly  Indians,  on  his  noted  expedition 
against  Fort  Du  Quesne.  This  officer  had  too  just  a  sense  of 
the  superiority  of  the  European  race  of  men  and  soldiers,  not  to 
despise  the  Provincials.  Accordingly,  he  "  neglected,  diso 
bliged,  and  threw  aside  the  Virginians,  and  treated  the  Indians 
with  the  utmost  contempt."*  u  He  showed,"  says  Entick,f 
"  such  contempt  towards  the  Provincial  forces,  because  they 
u  could  not  go  through  their  exercise  with  the  same  dexterity  and 
u  regularity  as  a  regiment  of  guards  in  Hyde- Park."  uln  con- 
u  versation  with  general  Braddock  one  day,"  says  Franklin, 
"  (in  his  Memoirs,)  "  he  was  giving  me  some  accouns  of  his  in- 
"  tended  progress.  'After  taking  Fort  Du  Quesne,'  said  he,  c  I 
u  am  to  proceed  to  Niagara,  and  having  taken  that,  to  Fronte- 
lt  nac,  if  the  season  will  allow  time,  and  I  suppose  it  will;  for 
u  Du  Quesne  can  hardly  detain  me  above  three  or  four  days; 
"  and  then  I  see  nothing  that  can  obstruct  my  march  to  Niagara.' 
;c  Having  before  revolved  in  my  mind  the  long  line  his  army 
"  must  make  in  their  march  by  a  very  narrow  road,  to  be  cut 
u  for  them  through  the  woods  and  bushes;  and  also  what  I  had 
"  heard  of  a  former  defeat  of  fifteen  hundred  French,  who  in- 
"  vaded  the  Illinois  country,  I  had  conceived  some  doubts  and 
"  some  fears  for  the  event  of  the  campaign.  He  smiled  at  my 
u  ignorance,  and  replied,  'These  savages  may  indeed  be  afor- 
"l  midable  enemy  to  your  raw  American  militia*  but  upon  the 
"  king's  regular  disciplined  troops.  Sir,  it  is  impossible  they 
"  should  make  any  impression.'  "J 

The  humble  auxiliaries  of  Braddock  pointed  out  the  dan 
gers  to  which  he  was  exposed,  remonstrated  against  the  confi 
dence  of  his  march,  and  in  so  doing,  heightened  his  magnani- 


*  Universal  History,  vol.  xl.  p.  203. 
t  Vol.  i.  p.  143. 
t  See  Note  H 


MILITARY   EFFORTS 

PART.  I.  mous  disdain.  The  horrible  catastrophe  is  still  fresh,  in  verse 
^^*~**~'  and  prose,  at  almost  every  fireside  in  the  interior  of  our  country. 
Six  hundred  of  his  regulars  either  killed  or  disabled,  by  ai: 
enemy  not  two-thirds  of  their  number,  and  partly  armed  will 
bows  and  arrows — himself  mortally  wounded — the  middlt 
colonies  laid  bare  to  the  tomahawk  and  scalping  knife — their 
frontiers  devastated  and  drenched  in  blood — consternation 
spread  throughout  British  America: — such  were  the  conse 
quences  of  the  national  and  personal  pride  of  the  British  ge 
neral.  The  moral  of  the  affair  is  made  doubly  striking  by  the 
following  accurate  relation  of  the  English  Universal  History 
"  It  is  remarkable,  that  the  Virginians  and  other  Provincial 
troops  who  were  in  this  action,  and  whom  Braddock,  by  way 
of  contempt,  had  placed  in  the  rear,  far  from  being  affected 
with  the  panic  which  disordered  the  regulars,  offered  to  ad 
vance  against  the  enemy,  till  the  others  could  form  and  faring 
up  the  artillery;  but  the  regulars  could  not  be  brought  again  to 
the  charge,  where,  as  they  said,  they  were  butchered  withou: 
seeing  the  enemy.  Notwithstanding  this,  the  Provincials  ac 
tually  formed,  and  behaved  so  well,  that  they  brought  off  tht: 
remaining  regulars;  and  the  retreat  of  the  whole  was  so  unin- 
termitting,  that  the  fugitives  never  stopped,  till  they  met  the 
rear  division,  which  was  advancing  under  colonel  Dunbar."* 
I  may  add,  from  the  Memoirs  of  Franklin,  who  wrote  as  an 
eye  witness,  a  passage  which  throws  additional  light  on  the  he 
roic  character  of  the  "  king's  regular  disciplined  troops."  "  In 
their  first  march,  from  the  landing  till  they  got  beyond  the 
settlements,  they  had  plundered  and  stripped  the  inhabitants, 
totally  ruining  some  poor  families,  besides  insulting,  abusing, 
and  confining  the  people  if  they  remonstrated.  This  was 
enough  to  put  us  out  of  conceit  of  such  defenders,  if  we  had 
really  wanted  any." 

It  was  the  lot  of  a  provincial  commander,  with  provincial 
troops,  to  restore,  in  a  few  weeks  after  the  discomfiture  of 
Braddock,  the  honour  of  the  Bristish  name,  and  the  tone  of 
the  public  mind.  The  plan  of  operations  for  the  campaign 
of  1755,  arranged  in  Virginia,  by  a  congress  of  governors, 
embraced  an  attempt  on  the  French  fort  at  Niagara,  to  b< 
made  by  the  American  regulars  arid  Indians;  and  an  expedi 
tion  against  Crown-Point,  to  consist  of  militia  from  the  north* 
ern  colonies.  In  the  course  of  the  summer,  an  American 
force  of  six  thousand  men  was  collected  for  these  purposes  at 
Albany,  the  appointed  rendezvous,  and  the  command  of  the 

*  Vol.  xl.  p.  204 


OF    THE    COLONISTS. 

aiain  body  devolved  upon  colonel  William  Johnson,  a  member  SECT.IV 
of  the  council  of  New  York.  When  on  his  march  to  Ticon-  ^-^^^^^ 
deroga,  this  officer  learned  that  a  large  body  of  the  enemy, 
composed  principally  of  French  regulars,  under  an  expe 
rienced  commander,  Baron  Dieskau,  had  been  despatched 
from  Canada,  to  intercept  the  design  upon  Crown-Point* 
They  met  on  the  banks  of  Lake  George,  and  Johnson  gained 
a  victory  nearly  as  signal  as  the  defeat  on  the  Monongahela. 
Eight  hundred  of  the  French,  the  flower  of  their  troops,  were 
killed  in  the  action,  and  their  distinguished  leader  fell,  mor 
tally  wounded,  into  the  hands  of  the  anglo- Americans;  while 
the  loss  of  the  latter  did  not  exceed  one  hundred  and  eighty 
men.  Dieskau's  plan  in  setting  out  from  Canada  with  his 
invincible  Europeans,  was  to,  desolate  the  northern  frontier 
settlements,  and  wrap  Albany  in  flames; — and  these  were  the 
evils  which  Johnson  averted,  besides  regaining  for  the  English, 
the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the  Indians,  whom  Braddock's 
tragedy  had  alienated.  According  to  the  English  historiansv 
Dieskau  owed  his  misfortune  to  presumption,  and  an  obstinate 
contempt  for  the  British  provincials. 

Although  great  expenses  were  incurred,  and  numerous 
forces  raised  by  the  colonies,  to  carry  into  effect  the  whole 
plan  of  the  campaign,  little  was  accomplished,  except  the  re 
pulse  of  the  French,  on  this  occasion.  In  accounting  for  the 
unprofitableness  of  the  preparations  of  the  year,  the  Univer 
sal  History  represents  it  as  evident,  that  certain  private 
discontents  lurked  in  the  minds  of  the  chief  provincials. 
u  Whatever  they  might  pretend,  they  knew  well  that  Brad- 
dock  had  a  commission,  to  act  as  commander  in  chief  of  all 
the  British  troops  on  the  continent  of  America,  and  that  they 
were  only  to  be  subordinate  to  him."*  The  British  govern 
ment  gave  all  the  eclat  to  the  affair  of  Lake  George,  of  which 
it  was  susceptible,  with  an  eye  to  their  interests  in  Europe;  and 
we  find  the  parliament,  in  an  address  to  the  king,  "  thankfully 
acknowledging  his  majesty's  wisdom  and  goodness,  in  having 
generously  extended  encouragement  to  that  great  body  of  his 
majesty's  brave  and  faithful  subjects,  with  which  his  American 
provinces  happily  abounded,  to  exert  their  strength  on  this 
important  occasion  of  the  encroachments  of  the  French  in 
America,  as  their  duty,  interest,  and  common  danger  obliged, 
and  strongly  called  upon  them  to  do." 


*  Vol.  xl.  p.  211. 
VOL.  I.— Q. 


MILITARY   EFFORTS 

PART  I.  8.  When  open  war  was  at  length  declared,  in  1756,  be- 
^^~v^^  tween  England  and  France,  the  British  cabinet  manifested  the 
disposition,  to  exert  the  force  of  the  empire,  against  the  French 
power  in  North  America; — and  "  the  English  subjects,"  says 
the  Universal  History,  u  all  over  that  continent,  seeing  their 
mother  country  was  determined  to  support  them  in  earnest, 
made  extraordinary  efforts  to  bring  a  formidable  force  to  the 
field."  It  was,  in  fact,  settled  by  a  council  of  colonial  gover 
nors,  that  twenty-one  thousand  men  should  be  raised  for  spe 
cific  expeditions,  notwithstanding  the  great  addition,  which 
the  levies  and  disasters  of  the  preceding  year,  had  made  to 
the  fiscal  difficulties  of  the  colonies.  Their  evil  genius  sug 
gested  to  the  mother  country  the  appointment  to  the  command 
over  their  forces,  and  the  twelve  thousand  British  regulars 
destined  to  the  same  service,  of  a  man,  in  whose  character  the 
leading  trait  was  indecision.  The  Earl  of  Loudon,  to  whom 
their  fortunes  were  committed,  had  not  only  this  defect,  but 
almost  every  other  kind  of  incapacity.  Authority  to  act  was 
wanting,  until  his  arrival;  or,  at  least,  was  affected  to  be 
thought  so,  by  general  Abercrombie,  who  commanded  in  the 
interval;  and  "  owing  to  the  unsettled  state  of  the  British 
ministry,"*  he  came  too  late  in  the  year  for  any  enterprise  of 
moment.  It  is  the  opinion  of  the  military  critics,  that  had  he 
appeared  sooner,  and  possessed  the  proper  degree  of  energy, 
the  whole  plan  of  operations  concerted  at  New  York,  and 
which  looked  to  the  reduction  of  all  the  principal  posts  of  the 
French,  might  have  been  effected.  Thus  another  year  was 
lost,  at  an  enormous  expense  to  Great  Britain,  and  with  infinite 
mischief  and  trouble  to  the  colonies. 

Meanwhile,  the  French  exerted  their  accustomed  activity, 
and  gained  the  most  important  advantages.  They  took  Fort 
Ontario,  at  Oswego,  and  made  prisoners  the  garrison  of  sixteen 
hundred  American  regulars. — By  this  event  they  became 
masters  of  the  great  lakes;  the  northern  frontier  was  nearly 
laid  open,  and  full  scope  afforded  to  the  Indians  to  glut  their 
vengeance  on  the  English  settlers.  With  common  judgment 
and  exertion,  on  the  part  of  the  British  general  Abercrombie, 
whom  I  have  mentioned  above  as  the  commander  in  chief  ad 
interim,  Oswego  might  have  been  preserved.  This  assertion 
is  fully  established  in  a  work  which  his  immediate  predeces 
sor,  governor  Shirley,  published  in  London  in  1758,  in  de 
fence  of  his  own  military  administration  in  America. f  It  is, 

*  Universal  History. 

f"  The  Conduct  of  major  general  Shirley,  late  General  and  Com 
mander  in  chief  of  his  Majesty's  forces  in  North  America,  briefly 
stated." 


OF   THE    COLONISTS. 


123 


in  the  same  volume,  put  beyond  question,  that  the  American  SECT.IV. 
garrison,  composed  of  the  author's  regiment  and  that  of  Pep-  ^^^^ 
perell,  behaved  with  the  utmost  gallantry;  so  far  that  when 
the  works  of  the  fort  were  no  longer  tenable,  the  officers  had 
considerable  difficulty  in  persuading  the  men  to  lay  down  their 
arms,  and  that,  some  of  the  latter,  according  to  the  testimony 
of  eye  witnesses,  "  suffered  themselves  to  be  knocked  on  the 
head  by  the  enemy,  rather  than  submit."  "  Yet,"  says  go 
vernor  Shirley,  "reports  were  propagated,  and  gained  credit  in 
England,  that  the  American  regiments,  (the  fiftieth  and  fifty- 
first,)  consisted  of  transported  convicts  and  Irish  Roman  Ca 
tholics,  who  by  their  mutinous  behaviour,  had  contributed  to 
the  loss  of  the  place.  Reports  were  likewise  propagated 
greatly  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  officers  of  both  regiments; 
but  their  known  characters,  and  the  behaviour  of  several  of 
them  upon  other  occasions,  in  his  majesty's  service,  as  well  as 
this,  are  sufficient  to  vindicate  their  honour." 

The  principal  of  the  expeditions  planned  for  the  year  1756 
by  the  provincial  governments,  was  that  against  Crown-Point, 
to  consist  of  a  body  of  ten  thousand  men,  made  up  of  contin 
gents  from  the  colonies  north  of  the  Carolinas.  Seven  thousand 
troops  were  actually  collected  for  the  purpose,  and  the  com 
mand  of  the  expedition  was  assigned  to  major-general  Winslow 
of  Massachusetts.  The  sufficiency  of  this  force  is  asserted  by 
Shirley  as  unquestionable,  from  the  unanimous  opinion  of  a 
council  of  war  held  at  Albany,  at  which  general  Abercrombie 
assisted.  Winslow  was  in  full  readiness,  in  good  time,  to 
proceed  with  his  provincials,  first  against  Ticonderoga;  and 
it  had  been  settled,  that  the  British  regulars  should  move  up 
to  forts  Edward  and  William  Henry,  which  the  former  occu 
pied,  and  be  there  prepared  to  sustain  or  assist  them,  as  the 
occasion  might  require.  The  march  of  Winslow  was  delayed 
by  obstacles  ascribable  to  the  improvidence  of  Abercrombie; 
and  on  the  intelligence  of  the  fall  of  Oswego,  all  offensive  ope 
rations  in  that  quarter  were  countermanded  by  the  Earl  of 
Loudon.  In  the  letter*  which  Winslow  addressed  to  the  Earl 
of  Halifax  in  London,  on  the  subject  of  this  affair,  we  find  the 
following  passage.  "  I  write  that  your  lordship  may  be  in 
formed  of  the  share  the  American  troops  under  my  command 
have  had  in  this  expedition;  and  although  we  did  not  attempt 
Crown-Point,  which  was  the  thing  principally  aimed  at  by  our 
constituents,  yet  we  were  the  means  of  stopping  the  current 
of  the  French  forces,  after  their  success  in  carrying  Oswego, 

*  Preserved  in  the  Collections  of  the  Mass.  His.  Soc.  vol.  for  1799 


124  MILITARY   EFFORTS 

PART  I.  and  thereby  the  saving  of  Albany,  and  a  great  part  of  the 
'~*-v^^  government  of  New  York,   as  well  as  the  western  parts  of 
New  England,  which,  by  their  joining  their  forces  at  Carilon, 
was  doubtless  their  intent." 

The  right  of  Massachusetts  to  compensation  for  the  provi 
sions  with  which  she  furnished  the  king's  troops  during  these 
arrangements,  was  admitted  by  the  British  parliament;  but  se 
veral  years  elapsed  before  any  part  of  the  sum  liquidated  was 
paid.  Minot  relates  a  transaction  of  the  governor  of  Massa 
chusetts  with  the  general  court  of  that  province,  in  relation  to 
a  levy  of  three  thousand  five  hundred  for  the  Crown-Point 
expedition,  which  exemplifies  strikingly,  the  impression  enter 
tained  by  the  royal  officers  in  America,  of  the  scrupulosity 
of  the  fiscal  conscience  of  the  mother  country,  where  the 
northern  colonies  were  concerned.  "  The  governor  agreed  to 
the  terms  of  the  general  court,  and  loaned  the  province  thirty 
thousand  pounds  sterling,  out  of  the  king's  money  in  his  hands, 
taking  for  security  such  grant  as  might  be  made  them  for  their 
extraordinary  services  by  the  king  or  parliament,  and  a  farther 
collateral  mortgage  of  a  tax,  to  be  raised  in  the  two  following 
years.* 

Notwithstanding  that  the  only  brilliant  achievements  dur 
ing  the  war,  had  been  performed  when  the  Provincials  singly 
opposed  the  enemy,  or  were  seconded  but  in  a  very  slight 
degree  by  the  British  regulars;  and  that  the  adventure  of 
Braddock  had  baffled  all  the  domestic  arrangements  for  de 
fence,  it  can  occasion  no  surprise,  that  the  British  commander 
in  chief,  at  the  beginning  of  1757,  formally  laid  to  the  charge 
of  the  colonies,  all  the  calamities  of  the  preceding  year.  He 
established  his  own  infallibility  by  doing  no  more,  the  suc 
ceeding  campaign,  although  the  British  force  in  America  at 
his  disposal  had  been  augmented  to  twenty  thousand  men,  and 
twenty  ships  of  the  line,  than  make  a  demonstration  upon 
Louisbourg.  He  collected  his  troops  at  Halifax;  waited  there 
some  time  for  advices;  then  returned  gallantly  to  New  York  and 
— dismissed  the  Provincials.  Montcalm,  who  succeeded  baron 
Dieskau  in  the  command  of  the  military  means  of  Canada,  tak 
ing  advantage  of  the  absence  of  the  principal  part  of  the  British 
army,  besieged  and  reduced  Fort  William  Henry,  situated  on 
the  southern  coast  of  Lake  George,  so  as  to  command  that  lake 
and  the  western  line.  The  Provincial  army  stationed  for  the 
defence  of  this  important  post,  made  a  noble  resistance,  and 
were  admitted  to  an  honourable  capitulation  by  the  French 
commander;  but  his  Indian  allies,  with  circumstances  which 

*  History  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  i.  c.  xii. 


MILITARY   EFFORTS  125 

mark  out  the  case  as  the  pattern  of  the  recent  one  of  the  SECT.iV. 
river  Raisin, — either  butchered,  or  appropriated  to  themselves,  v^-v-^/ 
as  prisoners,  a  considerable  part  of  the  brave  garrison.  Out 
of  a  New  Hampshire  corps  of  two  hundred,  eighty  were  mis 
sing.  It  was  not  merely  this  horrible  catastrophe,  and  the  loss 
of  ordnance,  ammunition,  provisions,  and  the  shipping  on  Lake 
George,  which  the  colonists  had  to  lament:  they  saw  the  In 
dians,  whom  they  had  been  able  to  attach  to  their  cause, 
shaken  in  their  fidelity;  and  such  of  the  tribes  as  had  deter 
mined  to  keep  aloof  from  the  struggle,  or  had  wavered  in  the 
choice  of  a  side,  converted  into  indefatigable  assailants. 
Massachusetts  felt,  more  than  the  enemy,  the  energy  of  the 
British  commander  in  chief,  in  a  controversy  which  arose  be 
tween  him  and  her  general  court,  concerning  the  quartering 
and  billeting  of  the  British  regulars  upon  the  inhabitants.  She 
resisted,  with  her  ancient  spirit,  the  extension  of  the  act  of  par 
liament  on  that  head,  to  America,  and  stood  firm  under  me 
naces  fitted  only  for  the  meridian  of  Hindostan. 

Our  illustrious  countryman,  Franklin,  had  personal  rela 
tions  with  the  noble  lord,  who  proved,  during  two  years,  so 
fatal  a  scourge  to  the  colonies.  He  has  left,  in  his  Memoirs, 
the  following  notice  of  him,  for  the  edification  of  posterity. 
"  I  wondered  how  such  a  man  as  Loudon  came  to  be  entrusted 
with  so  important  a  business  as  the,  command  of  a  great  army. 
Instead  of  defending  the  colonies  with  his  great  force,  he  left 
them  totally  exposed,  while  he  paraded  idly  at  Halifax;  by 
which  means  Fort  George  was  lost.  Besides  he  deranged  all 
our  mercantile  operations,  and  distressed  our  trade  by  a  long 
embargo  on  the  exportation  of  provisions,  on  pretence  of  keep 
ing  supplies,  from  being  obtained  by  the  enemy,  but  in  reality 
for  the  purpose  of  beating  down  their  price  in  favour  of  the  con 
tractors,  in  whose  profits  it  was  said,  (perhaps  from  suspicion 
only,)  he  had  a  share;  and  when  at  length  the  embargo  was 
taken  off,  he  neglected  to  send  notice  of  it  to  Charleston, 
where  the  Carolina  fleet  was  detained  near  three  months;  and 
whereby  tbeir  bottoms  were  so  much  damaged  by  the  worm, 
that  a  great  part  of  them  foundered  in  their  y33s?.ge  home."* 

In  1758,  the  elder  Pitt  breathed  a  new  son]  into  tile  British 
councils,  and  resuscitated  in  the  colonies  those  native  en-rgies, 
which  along  series  of  exhausting  and  disappointed  effjrts,  had 
sensibly  depressed.  Under  the  influence  of  his  magnanimous 
spirit,  America  may  be  said  to  have  emerged,  with  the  whole 
British  empire,  afrom  the  gulf  of  despondency,  and  risen  to 
the  highest  point  of  practical  vigour."  A  contagious  zeal 

*  See  Note  T. 


126 


MILITARY    EFFORTS 


PART  i.  gave  the  fullest  effect,  to  his  call  upon  the  colonial  governors, 
-^-v-^-'  for  the  largest  bodies  of  men  the  number  of  the  inhabitants 
would  allow.  Fifteen  thousand  troops  were  voted  by  the  three 
provinces  of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  New  Hampshire 
alone.  In  less  than  twenty-four  hours,  a  private  subscription 
of  ^20,000  sterling  for  encouraging  enlistments,  was  filled  up 
in  Boston.  "  The  expense,"  says  Minot,  a  of  the  regiments 
raised  for  his  majesty's  service  amounted  to  near  one  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  pounds  sterling:  besides  this,  the  inha 
bitants  of  the  several  towns  in  the  province,  by  fines,  or  by 
voluntary  contributions  to  procure  men  for  the  service,  paid  at 
least  sixty  thousand  pounds  sterling  more;  which  was,  in  all 
respects,  as  burdensome  as  if  it  had  been  raised  as  a  tax  by 
the  government.  The  defence  of  our  own  frontiers,  and 
the  other  ordinary  charges  of  government,  amounted  to,  at 
least,  thirty  thousand  pounds  sterling.  The  province  had,  in 
one  campaign,  on  foot,  seven  thousand  troops.  This  was  a 
greater  levy  for  a  single  province,  than  the  three  kingdoms 
had  made  collectively  in  any  one  year  since  the  revolution.'" 
Loudon  was  superseded,  in  the  beginning  of  1758,  by  ge 
neral  Abercrombie:  but  the  colonies  cannot  be  said  to  have 
gained  much  by  the  substitution.  The  new  commander  in 
chief  wasted  a  part  of  their  resources,  and  checked  the  mo 
mentum  of  the  mighty  force  which  Pitt  had  arrayed  on  this 
continent  against  the  French,  by  an  ill-advised  and  ill-ma 
naged  expedition  against  Crown-Point.  He  took  with  him 
sixteen  thousand  men,  of  whom  nine  thousand  were  Provincials, 
and  urged  them  to  a  hopeless  assault  upon  Ticonderoga,  which 
cost  the  lives  of  more  than  sixteen  hundred  of  his  bravest 
European  troops,  and  of  four  hundred  provincials.  u  This 
attack,"  says  the  Universal  History,  "  when  no  prospect  oi 
success  could  possibly  present  itself,  was  followed  by  a  retreat 
as  pusillanimous,  as  the  other  was  presumptuous.  The  genera! 
reimbarked  the  troops,  and  though  not  an  incident  had  happened 
that  might  not  have  been  easily  foreseen,  or  rationally  expect 
ed,  he  returned  to  his  former  camp  at  Lake  George."* 

Anxious  to  repair  in  any  way,  the  mischief  and  disgrace  of 
this  repulse,  Abercrombie  consented,  at  the  solicitation  of  a 
native  American  officer,  colonel  Bradstreet,  to  detach  him 
with  three  thousand  men,  against  Fort  Frontenac,  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Ohio.  This  body  of  troops,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  only  one  hundred  and  fifty-five  regulars,  was  com- 
posed  of  Provincials;  and  after  surmounting,  as  the  historians 

*  Vol.  xl.  p.  220. 


OP    THE    COLONISTS. 


127 


acknowledge,  incredible  difficulties  and  hardships,  it  gave  an  SECT.IV. 
earnest  of  victory  to  the  British  cause,  by  capturing  the  for-  s-^^-**^ 
tress,  together  with  nine  armed  vessels,  a  vast  quantity  of  am 
munition,  &c.   and  breaking  up  thus,  the  principal  depot  of 
supplies  for  the  south  western  posts,  and  the  hostile  Indians. 
Louisbourg  constituted  an  object  of  primary  importance  in 
the  great  scheme  for  annihilating  the  French  power  in  Ameri 
ca,  which  engrossed  the  care  and  strained  the  vigour  of  Pitt.* 
The  reduction  of  that  fortress  was  one  of  the  first  operations  of 
the  campaign,  and  was  accomplished  with  an  overwhelming 
force  indeed,  but  in  a  manner  highly  creditable  to  the  courage 
of  the  victors,  among  whom  the  provincials  bore  a  distinguish 
ed  part.     It  was  not  easy,  even  for  the  mother  country  to  for 
get,  or  not  to  recal  at  the   moment,  what  had  been  before 
achieved  by  New  England  on  the  same  theatre. 

9.  To  dispossess  the  French  of  Fort  Du  Quesne,  the  bul 
wark  of  their  dominion  over  the  western  region,  entered  neces 
sarily  into  the  plan  of  the  campaign.  This  object  was  effect 
ed,  not  certainly  through  the  judgment  and  skill  of  the  British 
commander,  within  whose  province  it  fell,  but  by  the  magni 
tude  of  the  force  employed,  and  the  influence  of  extraneous 
events. f  The  Virginia  militia  composed  a  large  part  of  the 
army,  which  general  Forbes  carried  with  him  in  this  enter 
prise,  and  were  under  the  immediate  direction  of  Washing 
ton.  They  performed  the  chief  labour,  truly  herculean,  and 
infinitely  more  oppressive  than  would  have  been  necessary, 
kad  the  British  leader  condescended  to  avail  himself,  in  the 
choice  of  a  route  and  of  the  season  of  action,  of  the  experi 
ence  and  topographical  knowledge  of  the  provincial  colonel. 
Against  the  urgent,  reiterated  expostulations  of  the  latter,  and 


*  Much  of  the  merit  of  the  scheme  is  due  to  Franklin,  who  constantly 
urged  the  conquest  of  Canada  upon  the  British  government.  The  fol 
lowing  statement  of  his  grandson  has  never  been  contradicted  in  Eng 
land.  "  The  more  Franklin  weighed  the  subject  in  his  mind,  the  more 
was  he  satisfied,  that  the  true  interest  of  Great  Britain  lay  in  weakening 
her  rival  on  the  side  of  America,  rather  than  in  Germany;  and  these 
sentiments  he  imparted  to  some  of  his  friends,  by  whom  they  were  re 
ported  to  William  Pitt,  afterwards  Earl  of  Chatham ;  who  no  sooner 
consulted  him  on  the  practicability  of  the  conquest  of  Canada,  than  he 
was  convinced  by  the  force  of  his  arguments,  and  determined  by  the 
simple  accuracy  of  his  statements.  The  enterprise  was  immediately 
undertaken ;  the  command  given  to  general  Wolfe,"  &.c.  (Memoirs, 
p.  194.) 

f  "  The  success  of  colonel  Bradstreet,  at  Frontignac,  in  all  proba 
bility,  facilitated  the  expedition  under  Forbes,"  &e. — RussePs  Modern 
Europe,  let.  xxxiii. 


128  MILITARY    EFFORTS 

PART  I.  when  there  was  left  scarcely  time  to  tread  the  beaten  track 
^^^-^s  universally  confessed  to  be  the  best  passage  over  the  moun 
tains,  he  selected  a  road,  every  inch  of  which  was  to  be  cuL 
and  which  exacted  the  constant  toil  of  fifteen  hundred  or  two 
thousand  men.     Washington  advanced  in  front,  and  opened 
the  almost  impervious  forest  and  mountain  to  the  main  body  of 
the  army.     On  the  approach  to  Fort  Du  Quesne,  the  British 
general,  disregarding  the  caution  of  his  faithful  pioneer,  sen! 
forward  a  select  corps  of  eight  hundred  men  to  reconnoi 
tre  the  adjacent  country.     The  enemy  overpowered  this  de 
tachment,    and  had   destroyed  it,  but  for  the  bravery  and 
self  possession  of  a  Virginia  captain.*      Out  of  a  company 
of  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  provincials,  sixty-two  fell  on  the 
spot;  and  of  the  whole  detachment,  the  number  of  killed  and 
wounded  was  nearly  tfcree  hundred.      From  the  account  oi' 
this  expedition,   framed  by  Chief  Justice    Marshall,!   upor 
the   papers  of   Washington,   and   unquestionably  authentic, 
it  is  to  be  inferred,  that  if  the  army  of  Forbes  did  not  en 
counter  even  a  worse  fate  than  that  of  Braddock,  it  was  noi 
owing  to  any  superior  wisdom  of  management,  or  greatei 
pliability,  in  the  leader. 

"  The  army,"  says  Marshall,  "  reached  the  camp  at  Loyal 
Hanna,  through  a  road  alleged  to  be  indescribably  bad,  about 
the  fifth  of  November,  where,  as  had  been  predicted,  a  council 
of  war  determined,  that  it  was  unadvisable  to  proceed  further 
this  campaign.     It  would  have  been  almost  impossible  to  have 
wintered  an  army  in  that  position.     They  must  have  retreated 
from  the  cold  inhospitable  wilderness  into  which  they  had 
penetrated,  or  have  suffered  immensely,  perhaps  have  perished. 
Fortunately  some  prisoners  were  taken,  who  informed  them  oi 
the  extreme  distress  of  the  fort.     Deriving  no  support  from 
Canada,  the  garrison  was  weak;  was, in  great  want  of  pro 
visions;  and  had  been  deserted  by  the  Indians.     These  en 
couraging  circumstances  changed  the  resolution  which  had 
been  taken,  and  determined  the  general  to  prosecute  the  ex 
pedition."     Washington  seems  to  have  felt  the  utmost  indig 
nation  and  chagrin  at  the  conduct  of  the  enterprise,  and  ex 
pressed  himself  with  unusual  warmth,  in  his  first  letters  to  the 
speaker  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses.     "  We  appear, 
in  my  opinion,  to  act  under  the  guidance  of  an  evil  genius. 
We  shall  be  stopped  at  the  Laurel  Hill  this  winter.     Can  ge 
neral  Forbes  have  orders  for  these  proceedings?  Impossible 

*  See  a  full  account  of  the  service  performed  by  this  officer,  cap 
tain  Bullet,  in  vol.  iii.p.  3,  of  Burk's  History  of  Virginia, 
f  Life  of  Washington,  vol.  ii.  ch.  i. 


OF   THE    COLONISTS.  129 

The  conduct  of  our  leaders  is  tempered  with  something  I  do  SECT.  iv. 
not  care  to  give  a  name  to.  Nothing  but  a  miracle  can  bring  v^^^x^ 
the  campaign  to  a  happy  issue,"  &c. 

When  we  consider  what  is  the  present  face  of  the  country 
between  Philadelphia  and  Pittsburg,  it  is  doubly  interesting  to 
contemplate  the  picture  drawn  of  it  by  the  English  historians, 
in  their  commemoration  of  this  affair.  "  In  the  beginning  of 
July,  1758,  Brigadier  Forbes  set  out  on  his  expedition  from 
Philadelphia  for  Fort  Du  Quesne.  He  was  to  march  through 
countries  that  never  had  been  impressed  by  human  footsteps, 
and  he  had  difficulties  to  surmount,  greater,  perhaps,  than 
those  of  Alexander,  in  his  expedition  to  India;  by  establishing 
magazines,  forming  and  securing  camps,  procuring  carriages, 
and  encountering  a  thousand  unforeseen  obstacles  in  penetrat 
ing  through  regions,  that  presented  nothing  but  scalping  parties 
of  French  and  savages,  mountains,  woods,  and  morasses,"  &c.* 

It  is  sufficient  to  repeat  the  fact,  that  the  colonies  had  on 
foot,  in  active  co-operation  with  the  British  forces,  in  1759, 
twenty-five  thousand  troops, — to  establish  their  title  to  a  large 
share  of  the  glorious  results  of  that  year.  The  number  of  the 
provincials  was  considerable  before  Quebec,  and  still  greater 
in  Amherst's  arduous  expedition,  by  way  of  Ticonderoga, 
Crown-Point,  and  Lake  Champlain.  That  ablest  of  the  British 
commanders  in  America,  bore,  in  the  general  orders  which  he 
issued,  after  the  complete  reduction  of  Canada,  in  1760,  the 
strongest  testimony  to  "  the  indefatigable  efforts  of  his  majesty's 
faithful  subjects  in  America,  and  the  zeal  and  bravery  of  the 
officers  and  soldiers  of  the  provincial  troops." 

The  troops  of  this  description  composed  altogether  the  third 
grand  division  of  the  British  force,  with  which  general  Pri- 
deaux,  "  assisted  by  the  interest  and  abilities  of  the  provincial 
leader,  gen.  William  Johnson,"  marched  to  reduce  Fort  Niaga 
ra,  a  post  of  the  utmost  consequence  in  itself,  and  in  relation 
to  the  success  of  the  main  enterprise  of  the  campaign  of  1759. 
The  manner  in  which  this  service  was  performed  will  sustain  a 
comparison  at  least,  with  that  of  Abercrombie's  attempt  upon 
Ticonderoga.  I  will  adopt  the  narrative  of  the  Universal 
History. 

"  While  Amherst  was  reducing  Crown-Point,  and  making 
himself  master  of  Lake  Champlain,  Prideaux  and  Sir  Wil 
liam  Johnson  were  proceeding  against  Fort  Niagara.  On 
the  20th  of  July,  Prideaux,  to  the  inexpressible  grief  of 
the  army,  was  killed  in  the  trenches,  by  the  bursting  of  a 

*  Vol.  xl.  p.  221,  Universal  History. 

VOL.  I.— R 


130  MILITARY    EFFORTS 

PARTI,  cannon.  The  command  then  fell  upon  Sir  William  Johnson, 
•-^-v-^*'  who  was  superseded  by  brigadier-general  Gage,  by  the  appoint 
ment  of  Amherst.  Before  Gage  could  arrive  at  Niagara,  John 
son  had  performed  wonders.  He  had  carried  his  approaches 
within  one  hundred  yards  of  the  covert-way  of  the  fort;  and 
the  French  were  so  apprehensive  of  losing  that  palladium  of 
their  interest  in  North  America,  that  they  exerted  their  utmost 
to  maintain  it,  by  collecting  seventeen  hundred  men  from  all 
the  neighbouring  posts,  particularly  from  Detroit,  Venango, 
and  Presque  Isle,  under  the  command  of  Mons.  D'Aubry. 
Had  this  reinforcement  reached  the  fort,  it  must  have  been 
impregnable;  but  Johnson  made  dispositions  towards  the  left, 
on  the  road  leading  from  Niagara  falls  to  the  fortress,  for  in 
tercepting  it." 

"About  8  o'clock,  on  the  24th  of  July,  the  enemy  appear 
ed,  and  the  English  Indians  attempted  in  vain  to  have  some 
talk  with  their  countrymen,  who  served  under  the  French. 
The  battle  began  with  a  horrible  war-whoop,  which  was  now 
matter  of  ridicule,  rather  than  terror,  to  the  English,  uttered 
by  the  French  Indians.  The  French,  as  usual,  charged  with 
vast  impetuosity,  but  being  received  with  equal  firmness,  and 
the  English  Indians  on  the  flanks  doing  considerable  execu 
tion,  all  the  French  army  were  put  to  the  rout,  and  for  five 
miles  the  pursuit  continued,  in  which  seventeen  officers, 
among  whom  were  the  first  and  second  in  command,  were 
made  prisoners.  Next  morning  Sir  Wm.  Johnson  sent  a  trum 
pet  to  the  French  commandant,  with  a  list  of  the  seventeen 
officers  that  had  been  taken,  to  convince  him  of  the  inutility 
of  further  resistance.  The  commandant  found  all  Sir  Wil 
liam  Johnson's  intelligence  to  be  perfectly  true,  and  in  a  few 
hours  a  capitulation  was  signed,  by  which  six  hundred  and 
seven  men,  of  which  the  garrison  consisted,  were  to  march 
out  with  the  honours  of  war,  to  be  embarked  on  the  lake,  and 
carried  to  New  York,  but  protected  from  the  barbarity  of  the 
Indians.  The  women  and  children  were  carried  to  Montreal, 
and  the  conqueror  treated  the  sick  and  wounded  in  a  manner 
so  humane,  as  to  prove  himself  worthy  of  victory.  Thus,  for 
a  second  time,  this  self-taught  general  obtained  an  entire  tri 
umph  over  the  boasted  discipline  of  the  French  arms.  But 
that  was  his  least  praise.  Though  eleven  hundred  Indians 
followed  him  to  the  field,  he  restrained  them  within  regular 
bounds."* 

While  affecting  at  home  to  consider  the  colonists  as  of  little 
efficiency  in  the  field,  and  even  to  deride  their  humblest  pre- 

*  Vol.  xl.  p.  237. 


OF  THE    COLONISTS. 


131 


tensions  to  the  military  character,*  the  mother  country  inces-  SECT.  IV. 
santly  called  upon  their  assemblies  for  more  levies,  with  pro-  ^^^^s 
testations  of  the  indispensableness  of  their  fullest  co-operation. 
They  were  required,  in  1760,  to  raise  and  equip,  if  practi 
cable,  at  least  as  large  a  body  of  men  as  they  had  sent  forth  the 
preceding  year;  and  they  obeyed  with  an  alacrity  equal  to  that 
which  they  had  manifested,  when  it  seemed  necessary  for  them 
to  make  extreme  efforts,  to  avoid  being  overrun  by  the  com 
mon  enemy,  let  in  through  the  incapacity  of  the  British  com 
manders.  Massachusetts  supplied  besides,  troops  to  guard 
Louisbourg,  Halifax,  and  Lunenburg,  and  entirely  garrisoned 
Annapolis,  Fort  Cumberland  at  Chignecto,  and  Fort  Frederick 
at  St.  Johns.  It  was  not  merely  land  forces  that  were  furnish 
ed  by  New  England.  Her  seamen  served  in  such  numbers  on 
board  the  British  ships  of  war,  that  her  merchants  were  com 
pelled  to  navigate  their  trading  vessels  with  Indians  and  ne- 
groes.f  More  than  four  hundred  privateers,  as  I  have  already 
had  occasion  to  remark,  issued,  during  the  war,  from  the  North 
American  ports,  ravaged  the  French  West  India  Islands,  and 
distressed  to  the  utmost  the  commerce  of  France  in  all  parts 
of  the  world. 

During  the  years  1760  and  1761,  the  southern  colonies 
were  involved  in  hostilities  with  the  Cherokee  Indians.  These, 
instigated  by  the  French,  made  the  most  destructive  inroads, 
and  required  some  arduous  campaigns  to  be  reduced  to  inac 
tion.  In  1763,  a  general  Indian  war  unexpectedly  broke 
out,  of  a  most  disastrous  and  alarming  character.  It  threat 
ened  the  loss  of  some  of  the  important  posts  which  had 
been  wrested  from  the  French,  and  depopulated  a  great  part 
of  the  western  frontiers.  Franklin,  being  asked,  on  his  exa 
mination  before  the  House  of  Commons,  whether  this  was  not 
a  war  for  America  only;  answered,  that  it  was  rather  a  conse 
quence  or  remains  of  the  former  one,  the  Indians  not  having 
been  thoroughly  pacified;  that  the  Americans  bore  much  the 
greater  share  of  the  expense;  and  that  it  was  put  an  end  to 
by  the  army  under  general  Bouquet,  consisting  of  about  three 
hundred  regulars,  and  above  one  thousand  Pennsylvanians. 

The  pecuniary  charges  incurred  by  the  colonists  in  the  seven 
years  war,  greatly  exceeded  the  amount  of  the  sums  which  were 
allotted  to  them  by  the  British  Parliament,  as  an  indemnity. 

*  See  Note  I. 

f  It  was  asserted,  without  contradiction,  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
in  the  debate  of  March  11,  1778,  on  the  state  of  the  British  navy,  that 
ten  thousand  of  the  seamen  employed  in  it  during  the  war  of  1756. 
were  natives  of  North  America. 


132  MILITARY  EFFORTS 

PART  I.  The  excess  was  two  millions  five  hundred  thousand  pounds, 
^^•^v^^  not  taking  into  the  account  the  extraordinary  supplies  granted 
by  the  colonial  assemblies.  Their  whole  disbursement  did 
not  fall  short  of  three  millions  and  a  half;  a  sum  far  more 
onerous  for  them,  in  the  proportion  of  their  ability  and  ha 
bits,  than  that  which  was  expended  by  the  crown,  great  as  it 
was,  could  have  been  for  the  British  people. 

On  the  termination  of  the  struggle  in  Canada,  in  1760,  and 
the  extinction  of  danger  from  the  French  in  North  America, 
the  provinces  were  fairly  entitled  to  an  exemption  from  all 
contribution  to  the  exterior  military  enterprises  of  the  mother 
country;  at  least  until  the  deep  wounds  they  had  received  in 
their  finances,  and  the  most  valuable  part  of  their  population, 
should  be  healed  A  considerable  body  of  native  troops  was, 
however,  drawn  from  them,  to  assist  in  the  reduction  of  the 
French  and  Spanish  West  India  Islands:  and  Massachusetts 
raised  in  1762,  three  thousand  two  hundred  and  twenty,  as  her 
quota,  for  the  object  of  "  securing  the  British  dominions,  and 
particularly  the  conquests  in  her  neighbourhood."  "  Many 
of  the  common  soldiers,"  says  the  historian,  Gordon,  "who 
gained  such  laurels,  by  their  singular  bravery  on  the  plains  of 
Abraham,  when  Wolfe  died  in  the  arms  of  victory,  were  na 
tives  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay.  When  Martinico  was  attack 
ed  in  1761,  and  the  British  force  was  greatly  weakened  by 
death  and  sickness,  the  timely  arrival  of  the  New  England 
troops  enabled  the  former  to  prosecute  the  reduction  of  the 
island  to  an  happy  issue.  A  part  of  the  British  force  being 
now  about  to  sail  from  thence  for  the  Havanna,  the  New 
Englanders,  whose  health  had  been  much  impaired  by  service 
and  the  climate,  were  sent  off  in  three  ships,  to  their  native 
country  for  recovery.  Before  they  had  completed  their  voyage, 
they  found  themselves  restored,  ordered  the  ships  about,  steer 
ed  immediately  for  the  Havanna,  arrived  when  the  British 
were  too  much  reduced  to  expect  success,  and  by  their  junc 
tion,  served  to  immortalize  afresh,  the  glorious  first  of  August, 
old  style,  in  the  surrender  of  the  place  on  that  memorable  day: 
they  exhibited,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  signal  evidence  of 
devotedness  to  the  parent  state.  Their  fidelity,  activity,  and 
courage,  were  such  as  to  gain  the  approbation  and  confidence 
of  the  British  officers."* 

There  are  some  general  considerations  which  place  in  strong 

*  History  of  the  American  Revolution,  vol.  i.  page  Ijj.     The  writer 
received  his  information  not  only  from  public,  but  from  private,  sources 
he  cites  particularly  Brooke  Woodcock,  Esq.  of  Saffron  Walden,  whc 
served  at  the  taking1  of  Belleisle,  Martinico,  and  the  Havanna. 


OP   THE    COLONISTS, 


133 


relief,  the  merit  of  the  multitude  of  Americans  who  served  as  SECT.  IV. 
volunteers  in  these  campaigns.  They  cannot  be  supposed  to  \^~^^*s 
have  been  tempted  by  the  slender  pay  which  they  received; 
for,  their  domestic  affairs  were,  in  all  cases,  of  a  nature  to 
suffer  greatly  by  their  absence:  They  could  not  be  incited  by 
hopes  of  preferment,  since  the  provincial  forces  were  uniform 
ly  disbanded  on  a  peace;  the  provincial  officers  no  further 
rewarded  by  commissions  than  the  enlisting  of  men  made  it 
necessary;  and  the  vacancies  which  occurred  among  the  re 
gulars,  filled  with  Europeans:  They  were  liable  to  perpetual 
mortification  by  invidious  distinctions  in  favour  of  the  British 
troops;  they  were  penuriously  praised  when  their  prowess  was 
unquestionable,  and  outrageously  censured  when  their  conduct 
gave  the  least  opening  to  detraction.  Under  such  circum 
stances,  there  are  no  other  motives  to  be  assigned  for  their 
self-devotion,  except  public  spirit, — a  sense  of  duty — a  native 
manliness  of  character.  In  truth,  the  colonists  were  unspar 
ing  of  their  resources  and  their  blood,  not  merely,  from  a  belief 
that  the  cause  was  their  own,  and  from  a  resolution  to  protect 
themselves  to  the  utmost  of  their  ability;  but  as  members  of  the 
British  empire,  eager  for  its  prosperity,  and  deeply  interested 
in  all  its  concerns;  proud  of  their  kindred  and  connection  with 
the  British  nation,  and  sympathetic  in  its  prejudices  and  pas 
sions.  Whoever  gives  attention  to  the  public  papers  of  the 
era  of  the  seven  years  war,  will  be  convinced,  that  they  enter 
ed  into  the  rivalry  between  England  and  France,  with  the 
keenness  of  the  school  of  Pitt,  and  rejoiced  in  the  success 
of  the  British  arms,  not  more  as  ministerial  to  their  security, 
than  to  the  ascendency  of  the  British  power  and  the  glory  of 
the  British  name. 

10.  At  the  peace  of  Paris,  of  1763,  England  found  herself 
the  acknowledged  mistress  of  the  whole  continent  of  America 
north,  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  assured  of  a  permanent  naval 
supremncv  over  the  nations  of  Europe.  It  is  a  proposition 
now  hardly  disputed,  even  as  an  exercise  of  ingenuity,  that  for 
this  vast  extension  of  her  power,  and  the  triumph  of  her  for 
tunes  over  those  of  France,  she  was  largely  indebted  to  the 
exiles  who  adhered  to  her  dominion.  Originally,  they 
had  preserved  the  Atlantic  territory  from  the  occupation  of 
her  enemies.  No  great  sagacity  is  required  to  perceive,  that 
had  the  French  settled  and  retained  it,  she  must  have  fallen 
into  the  secondary  rank  as  a  naval  and  commercial  power.* 

*  "  It  appears,"  says  Hutchinson,  (vol.  i.  chap  i.)  "that  the  Massachu 
setts  people  took  possession  of  the  country  at  a  very  critical  time. 


134  MILITARY   EFFORTS 

PART  I.  What  she  became,  she  never  could  have  become,  without  the 
w*v~>*/  thirteen  colonies;  and  not  unless  they  had  become  what  their 
industry,  spirit,  and  intelligence,  made  them.  Whatever  obli 
gations,  then,  she  can  pretend,  with  any  colour  of  plausibility, 
to  have  conferred,  must  fall  far  short  of  those  which  she  re 
ceived.  Their  instrumentality  in  her  elevation  and  the  de 
pression  of  her  rival,  manifestly  overbalances  even  the  degree 
of  protection  which  she  herself  claims  to  have  extended.  And 
the  duty  of  gratitude  appears  the  more  exigent,  from  the  con 
sideration  of  that  British  feeling,  to  which  I  have  referred 
in  the  preceding  page,  as  the  main  spring  of  their  prodigious 
efforts  in  seconding  all  her  aims. 

It  will  seem  scarcely  credible,  that  the  politicians  of  Eng 
land  earnestly  debated,  during  the  negotiations  for  the  peace 
of  1763,  and  while  parliament  was  yet  complimenting  the 
colonies  for  their  loyal  sacrifices,  whether  Canada  should  not 
be  restored  to  the  French,  and  the  Island  of  Guadaloupe  re 
tained  in  preference.  The  odium  of  this  controversy,  which, 
in  its  general  purport,  put  out  of  question  every  claim  and  se 
curity  of  their  American  brethren,  and  admitted  of  no  calcula 
tion  but  one  of  mere  commercial  profit  and  loss,  was  greatly 
aggravated  by  the  principal  grounds  of  argument  with  some 
of  the  most  eminent  writers  of  the  day,  who  embraced  the 
affirmative—"  that  the  colonies  were  already  large  and  nu 
merous  enough,  and  that  the  French  ought  to  be  left  in  North 
America  to  prevent  their  increase,  lest  they  should  become  not 
only  useless,  but  dangerous  to  Great  Britain."  "  It  was  in 
sinuated,"  says  Russel,*  "  by  some  of  our  keen-sighted  politi- 


Richlieu,  in  all  probability,  would  have  planted  his  colony  nearer  the 
sun,  if  he  could  have  found  any  place  vacant.  De  Monts  and  company 
had  acquired  a  thorough  knowledge  of  all  the  coast,  from  Cape  Sables 
beyond  Cape  Cod,  in  1604;  indeed  it  does  not  appear  that  they  then 
went  round  or  to  the  bottom  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Had  they  once 
gained  footing  there,  they  would  have  prevented  the  English.  The 
Frenchified  court  of  king  Charles  I.  would,  at  the  treaty 'of  St.  Ger 
main's,  have  given  up  any  claim  to  Massachusetts  Bay  as  readily  as  they 
did  to  Acadie  ;  for  the  French  could  make  out  no  better  title  to  Penob- 
scot  and  the  other  parts  of  Acadie,  than  they  could  to  Massachusetts. 
The  little  plantation  at  New  Plymouth  would  have  been  no  greater  bar 
to  the  French  in  one  place  than  in  the  other.  The  Dutch,  the  next 
year,  would  have  quietly  possessed  themselves  of  Connecticut  river, 
unless  the  French,  instead  of  the  English,  had  prevented  them.  Whe 
ther  the  people  of  either  nation  would  hare  persevered,  is  uncertain. 
If  they  had  done  it,  the  late  contest  for  the  dominion  of  North  America 
would  have  been  between  France  and  Holland,  and  the  commerce  of 
England  would  have  borne  a  very  different  proportion  to  that  of  the 
rest  of  Europe  from  what  it  does  at  present." 
*  Modern  Europe,  part  ii.  letter  xxxv. 


OF   THE    COLONISTS. 


135 


uians,  that  the  security  provided  by  the  retention  of  Canada,  SECT.  TV. 
for  the  English  settlements  in  North  America,  as  well  as  for  ^-^-^w 
their  extension  in  the  cession  of  Florida  by  Spain,  would  prove 
a  source  of  new  evils.     It  would  embolden  our  old  colonies 
to  shake  off  the  controul  of  the  mother  country,  since  they  no 
longer  stood  in  need  of  her  protection,  and  erect  themselves 
into  independent  states.'5     Franklin,  who,  at  this  period,  as 
agent  of  some  of  the  provinces  at  the  court  of  London,  watch 
ed  paternally  over  the  interests  of  the  whole,  found  himself 
under  the  necessity  of  combating  these  doctrines  in  an  elaborate 
tract,  which  I  have  already  noticed.     The  very  existence  of 
the  "  Canada-Pamphlet"  is  an  eternal  reproach  to  Great  Bri 
tain;  and  there  is  an  increase  of  shame,  from  its  being  an  ap 
peal,  not  to  her  generosity  or  her  justice,  but  to  her  separate 
interests.     Upon  these,  the  sagacious  author,  deeming  every 
higher  consideration,  idle  and  misplaced,  laid  all  stress;  and 
the  same  thing  may  be  said  of  the  British  cabinet,  on  a  refe 
rence  to  the  tenour  of  the  discussions  respecting  the  peace  both 
in  and  out  of  parliament.    Amid  the  violent  discontents  which 
the  improvident  treaty  of  Paris  excited,  consolation  was  found, 
not,  as  some  of  her  writers  have  gratuitously  alledged,  in  the 
exemption  of  the  colonies  from  the  annoyance  of  a  European 
enemy,  and  their  increased  ability  to  overawe  the  savages, — 
but  in  "  the  wide  scope  for  projects  of  political  ambition,  and 
the  boundless  field  for  speculations  of  commercial  avidity, 
which  the  undivided  sovereignty  of  the  vast  continent  of  Ame 
rica,  with  the  exclusive  enjoyment  of  its  trade,  seemed  to  open 
to  the  British  nation."*     We  may  judge  how  the  colonies 
would  have  fared  with  the  "  tory  counsels,"  to  whose  influence 
the  demerits  of  the  peace  were  attributed,  had  not  the  retention 
of  Canada  fallen  within  their  selfish  and  corrupt  views,  when 
we  advert  to  the  fact,  that  the  execrable  suggestion  above 
mentioned  came  from  the  whigs.  To  display  it  in  its  true  light, 
as  well  as  to  illustrate  the  temper  of  mind  with  which  the  great 
champion  of  the  colonies  had  to  contend,  I  cannot  do  better 
than  quote  his  bold  language  on  the  point. 

44  But  what  is  the  prudent  policy  inculcated  to  obtain  this  end 
— security  of  dominion  over  our  colonies?  It  is,  to  leave  the 
French  in  Canada  to  c  check  their  growth;  for  otherwise,  our 
people  may  increase  infinitely  from  all  causes.'  We  have  al 
ready  seen  in  what  manner  the  French  and  their  Indians  check 
the  growth  of  our  colonies.  It  is  a  modest  word,  this  check. 
for  massacreing  men,  women,  and  children." 

*  Russel,  ibid. 


136  MILITARY    EFFORTS 

PART  i.  "But  if  Canada  is  restored  on  this  principle,  will  not  Britain 
v^~^w  be  guilty  of  all  the  blood  to  be  shed,  all  the  murders  to  be 
committed,  in  order  to  check  this  dreaded  growth  of  our  own 
people?  Will  not  this  be  telling  the  French  in  plain  terms, 
that  the  horrid  barbarities  they  perpetrated  with  Indians,  on 
our  colonists,  are  agreeable  to  us;  and  that  they  need  not  ap 
prehend  the  resentment  of  a  government  with  whose  views 
they  so  happily  concur?  Will  not  the  colonies  view  it  in  this 
light?  Will  they  have  reason  to  consider  themselves  any 
longer  as  subjects  and  children,  when  they  find  their  cruel 
enemies  hallooed  upon  them  by  the  country  from  whence  they 
sprung;  the  government  that  owes  them  protection,  as  it  re 
quires  their  obedience?  Is  not  this  the  most  likely  means  oi 
driving  ihem  into  the  arms  of  the  French,  who  can  invite 
them  by  an  offer  of  security,  their  own  government  chooses 
not  to  offer  them?" 

u  If  it  be,  after  all,  thought  necessary  to  check  the  growth 
of  our  colonies,  give  me  leave  to  propose  a  method  less  cruel. 
The  method  I  mean,  is  that  which  was  dictated  by  the  Egyp 
tian  policy,  when  the  c  infinite  increase,'  of  the  children  oi' 
Israel,  was  apprehended  as  dangerous  to  the  state.  Let  an  act 
of  parliament  then  be  made,  enjoining  the  colony  midwives 
to  stifle  in  the  birth  every  third  or  fourth  child.  By  this  means 
you  may  keep  the  colonies  to  their  present  size." 

II.  I  have  made  no  assertion  in  treating  the  topics  upon  which 
I  have  enlarged  so  much,  of  the  military  merits  of  America, 
and  the  nature  of  the  protection  extended  to  her  by  the  mother 
country,  which   it  would  not  be  in  my  power  to  vindicate  by 
British  authority  of  the  highest  class.     And  I  cannot  refrain, 
though  it  is  done  at  the  risk  of  fatiguing  my  readers  by  what 
may  have  the  air  of  repetition,  from  seeking  in  the  records  of 
the  British  Parliament  for  a  general  confirmation  of  what  I 
have  advanced.    I  find  this,  with  every  recommendation  of  un 
questionable  validity,  and  sententious  eloquence,  in  a  speech 
of  David  Hartley,  on  the  American  question,  delivered  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  in  the  year  1775.     That  gentleman  long 
held  a  conspicuous  rank  in  Parliament;  lived  in  the  closest  in 
timacy  with  the  most  eminent  British  statesmen  of  the  time; 
concluded,  as  the  minister  plenipotentiary  of  Great  Britain,  the 
definitive  treaty  of  1 783,  with  the  United  States;  and  though  a 
zealous  friend  of  justice  and  the  injured  colonies,  established, 
with  all  parties  at  home,  the  character  of  a  devoted  patriot. 
What  follows  from  him  will  protect  me  from  the  charge  of 


OF    THE    COLONISTS. 

national  partiality  in  my  representations,  and  serve  me  as  a 
"iseful  recapitulation  of  facts. 

Mr.  Hartley  said, — 

"  I  would  wish  to  state  to  the  House,  the  merits  of  this 
question  of  requisitions  to  the  colonies,  and  to  see  upon  what 
principles  it  is  founded;  to  revise  the  accounts  between  Great 
Britain  and  them.  We  hear  of  nothing  now  but  the  protec 
tion  we  have  given  to  them;  of  the  immense  expense  incurred 
on  their  account.  We  are  told  that  they  have  done  nothing 
for  themselves;  that  they  pay  no  taxes;  in  short,  every  thing 
is  asserted  about  America  to  serve  the  present  turn,  without  the 
least  regard  to  truth.  I  would  have  these  matters  fairly 
sifted  out." 

"  To  begin  with  the  late  war, — of  '56.  The  Americans 
turned  the  success  of  the  war  at  both  ends  of  the  line.  Ge 
neral  Monckton  took  Beausejour  in  Nova  Scotia,  with  fifteen 
hundred  provincial  troops,  and  about  two  hundred  regu 
lars.  Sir  William  Johnson,  in  the  other  part  of  America, 
changed  the  face  of  the  war  to  success,  with  a  provincial 
army,  which  took  Baron  Dieskau  prisoner.  But,  Sir,  the 
glories  of  the  war  under  the  united  British  and  American  arms, 
are  recent  in  every  one's  memory.  Suffice  it  to  decide  this 
question;  that  the  Americans  bore,  even  in  our  judgment,  more 
than  their  full  proportion;  that  this  House  did  annually  vote 
them  an  acknowledgment  of  their  zeal  and  strenuous  efforts, 
and  compensation  for  the  excess  of  their  zeal  and  expenses, 
above  their  due  proportion.  They  kept,  one  year  with  ano 
ther,  twenty-five  thousand  men  on  foot,  and  lost  in  the  war 
the  flower  of  their  youth.  How  strange  it  must  appear  to 
them,  to  hear  of  nothing  down  to  the  year  1763,  but  en 
comiums  upon  their  active  zeal  and  strenuous  efforts;  and 
then,  no  longer  after  than  the  year  1764,  in  such  a  trice 
of  time,  to  see  the  tide  turn,  and  from  that  hour  to  this,  to 
hear  it  asserted  that  they  were  a  burden  upon  the  common 
cause;  asserted  even  in  that  same  parliament  which  had  voted 
them  compensations  for  the  liberality  and  excess  of  their 
service." 

"  Nor  did  they  stint  their  services  to  North  America.  They 
followed  the  British  arms  out  of  their  continent  to  the.Havan- 
na,  and  Martinique,  after  the  complete  conquest  of  America. 
And  so  they  had  done  in  the  preceding  war.  They  were  not 
grudging  of  their  exertions — they  were  at  the  siege  of  Car- 
thagena: — yet,  what  was  Carthagena  to  them,  but  as  members 

VOL.  I.— S 


137 


138 


MILITARY    EFFORTS 


PART  i.  of  the  common  cause,  friends  of  the  glory  of  this  country! 
v-^v^"'  In  that  war  too,  Sir,  they  took  Louisbourg  from  the  French, 
single  handed,  without  any  European  assistance;  as  mettled 
an  enterprise  as  any  in  our  history!  an  everlasting  memorial 
to  the  zeal,  courage,  and  perseverance  of  the  troops  of  New 
England.  The  men  themselves  dragged  the  cannon  over 
morasses,  which  had  always  been  thought  impassable,  where, 
neither  horses  nor  oxen  could  go,  and  they  carried  the  shot 
upon  their  backs.  And  what  was  their  reward  for  this  for 
ward  and  spirited  enterprise;  for  the  reduction  of  this  Ame 
rican  Dunkirk?  Their  reward,  Sir,  you  know  very  well — if 
was  given  up  for  a  barrier  to  the  Dutch.  The  only  conquest 
in  that  war,  which  you  had  to  give  up,  and  which  would  have 
been  an  effectual  barrier  to  them, against  the  French  power  ir 
America,  though  gained  by  themselves,  was  surrendered  for 
a  foreign  barrier,  As  a  substitute  for  this,  you  settled  Hali 
fax  for  a  place  d'annes,  leaving  the  limits  of  the  province  of 
Nova  Scotia  as  a  matter  of  contest  with  the  French,  which 
could  not  fail  to  prove,  as  it  did,  the  cause  of  another  war 
Had  you  kept  Louisbourg,  instead  of  settling  Halifax,  th« 
Americans  could  say,  at  least,  that  there  would  not  have  been 
that  pretext  for  imputing  the  late  war  to  their  account.  Jt 
has  been  their  forwardness  in  your  cause,  that  made  them  the 
objects  of  the  French  resentment.  In  the  war  of  1744,  at 
your  requisition,  they  were  the  aggressors  on  the  French  in 
America.  We  know  the  orders  given  to  Mons.  D'Anville,  to 
destroy  and  lay  all  their  sea  port  towns  in  ashes,  and  we  know 
the  cause  of  that  resentment;  it  was  to  revenge  their  conquest 
of  Louisbourg." 

"  Whenever  Great  Britain  has  declared  war,  they  have 
taken  their  part.  They  were  engaged  in  king  William's  wars, 
and  queen  Anne's,  even  in  their  infancy.  They  conquered 
Acadia  in  the  last  century,  for  us;  and  we  then  gave  it  up. 
Again,  in  queen  Anne's  war,  they  conquered  Nova  Scotia, 
which,  from  that  time,  has  always  belonged  to  Great  Britain. 
They  have  been  engaged  in  more  than  one  expedition  to  Ca 
nada,  ever  foremost  to  partake  of  honour  and  danger  with  the 
mother  country." 

",Well,  Sir,  what  have  we  done  for  them?  Have  we  con 
quered  the  country  for  them  from  the  Indians?  Have  we 
cleared  it?  Have  we  drained  it?  Have  we  made  it  habitable? 
What  have  we  done  for  them?  I  believe,  precisely  nothing  at 
all,  but  just  keeping  watch  and  ward  over  their  trade,  that 
they  should  receive  nothing  but  from  ourselves,  at  our  own 
price.  I  will  not  positively  say  that  we  have  spent  nothing; 


OP   THE    COLONISTS.  139 

though  I  don't  recollect  any  such  article  upon  our  journals:  SECT. IV. 
but  I  mean  any  material  expense  in  setting  them  out  as  colo-  «^^-^s 
nists.  The  royal  military  government  of  Nova  Scotia  cost, 
indeed,  not  a  little  sum;  above  ^500,000  for  its  plantation, 
and  its  first  years.  Had  your  other  colonies  cost  any  thing 
similar  either  in  their  outset  or  support,  there  would  have  been 
something  to  say  on  that  side;  but,  instead  of  that,  they  have 
been  left  to  themselves  for  one  hundred  or  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  upon  the  fortune  and  capital  of  private  adventur 
ers,  to  encounter  every  difficulty  and  danger.  What  towns 
have  we  built  for  them?  What  desert  have  we  cleared?  What 
country  have  we  conquered  for  them  from  the  Indians?  Name 
the  officers — name  the  troops — the  expeditions — their  dates. 
Where  are  they  to  be  found?  Not  in  the  journals  of  this  king 
dom.  They  are  no  where  to  be  found." 

"  In  all  the  wars  which  have  been  common  to  us  and  them, 
they  have  taken  their  full  share.  But  in  all  their  own  dan 
gers,  in  the  difficulties  belonging  separately  to  their  situation, 
in  all  the  Indian  wars  which  did  not  immediately  concern  us, 
we  left  them  to  themselves  to  struggle  their  way  through. 
For  the  whim  of  a  minister,  you  can  bestow  half  a  million  to 
build  a  town,  and  to  plant  a  royal  colony  of  Nova  Scotia;  a 
greater  sum  than  you  have  bestowed  upon  every  other  colony 
together." 

u  And  notwithstanding  all  these,  which  are  the  real  facts, 
now  that  they  have  struggled  through  their  difficulties,  and 
begin  to  hold  up  their  heads,  and  to  show  that  empire  which 
promises  to  be  the  foremost  in  the  world,  we  claim  them  and 
theirs,  as  implicitly  belonging  to  us,  without  any  consideration 
of  their  own  rights.  We  charge  them  with  ingratitude, 
without  the  least  regard  to  truth,  just  as  if  this  kingdom  had 
for  a  century  and  a  half,  attended  to  no  other  object;  as  if  all 
our  revenue,  all  our  power,  all  our  thought  had  been  bestowed 
upon  them,  and  all  our  national  debt  had  been  contracted  in 
the  Indian  wars  of  America;  totally  forgetting  the  subordina 
tion  in  commerce  and  manufactures,  in  which  we  have  bound 
them,  and  for  which,  at  least,  we  owe  them  help  towards  their 
protection." 

"  Look  at  the  preamble  of  the  act  of  navigation,  and  every 
American  act,  and  see  if  the  interest  of  this  country  is  not  the 
avowed  object.  If  they  make  a  hat  or  a  piece  of  steel,  an 
act  of  parliament  calls  it  a  nuisance;  a  tilting  hammer,  a  steel 
furnace,  must  be  abated  in  America  as  a  nuisance.  Sir,  I 
speak  from  facts.  I  call  your  books  of  statutes  and  journals 


140  MILITARY   EFFORTS 

PART.  i.  to  witness.     With  the  least  recollection,  every  one  must  ac- 
•<~^^>  knowledge  the  truth  of  these  facts." 

"  But  it  is  said,  the  peace  establishment  of  North  America 
has  heen,  and  is,  very  expensive  to  this  country.     Sir,  for 
what  it  has  been,  let  us  lake  the  peace  establishment  before 
1739,  and  after  1748.     All  that  I  can  find  in  your  journals  is. 
four  companies  kept  up  at  New  York,  and  three  companies  in 
Carolina.  As  to  the  four  companies  at  New  York,  this  country 
should  know  best  why  they  put  themselves  to  that  expense,  01 
whether  really  they  were  at  any  expense  at  all;  for  these  wen 
companies  of  fictitious  men.     Unless  the  money  was  repaic 
into  the  treasury,    it  was  applied   to  some  other    purpose 
these  companies  were  not  a  quarter  full.     In  the  year  1754 
two  of  them  were  sent  up  to  Albany,  to  attend  commissioners 
to  treat  with  the  six  nations,  to  impress  them  with  a  high  idea 
of  our  military  power;  to  display  all  the  pomp  and  circum  • 
stance  of  war  before  them,  in  hopes  to  scare  them;  when  in 
truth,  we  made  a  very  ridiculous  figure.     The  whole  comple 
ment  of  two  companies  did  not  exceed  thirty  tattered,  tottering 
invalids,  fitter  to  scare  the  crows.     This  information  1  hav? 
had  from  eye  witnesses." 

u  It  has  not  fallen  in  my  way  to  hear  any  account  of  the 
three  Carolina  companies:  These  are  trifles.  The  substantial 
question  is, — What  material  expense  have  you  been  at  in  the 
periods  alluded  to,  for  the  peace  establishment  of  North  Ame 
rica?  Ransack  your  journals,  search  your  public  offices  for 
army  or  ordnance  expenses.  Make  out  your  bill,  and  let  us  see 
what  it  is.  No  one  yet  knows  it.  Had  there  been  any  sucL, 
I  believe  the  administration  would  have  produced  it  before 
now,  with  aggravation." 

"  But  is  not  the  peace  establishment  of  North  America 
now  very  high,  and  very  expensive?  ^1  would  answer  that  by 
another  question:  Why  should  the  peace  establishment  sinre 
the  late  war,  and  the  total  expulsion  of  the  French  interest,  I.e 
higher  than  it  was  before  the  late  war,  and  when  the  French 
possessed  above  half  the  American  continent?  If  it  be  so, 
there  must  be  some  singular  reason." 

"  I  cannot  suppose  that  you  mean  under  the  general  term  of 
North  America,  to  saddle  all  the  expenses  of  Canada,  Nova 
Scotia,  Cape  Brelon,  Newfoundland,  Florida,  and  the  West 
Indies,  upon  the  old  colonies  of  North  America.  You  cannot 
mean  to  keep  the  sovereignty,  the  property,  the  possession 
(these  are  the  terms  of  the  cession  in  the  treaty  of  1763)  to 
yourselves,  and  lay  the  expense  of  the  military  establishment, 
which  you  think  proper  to  keep  up,  upon  the  old  colonies.' 


OP   THE    COLONISTS.  141 

"  Sir,  the  colonies  never  thought  of  interfering  in  the  pre-  SECT.iv. 
rogative  of  war  or  peace;  but  if  this  nation  can  be  so  unjust  ^^^^^^ 
as  to  meditate  the  saddling  the  expense  of  your  new  conquests 
separately  upon  them,  they  ought  to  have  had  a  voice  in  set 
tling  the  terms  of  peace.  It  is  you,  on  this  side  of  the  water, 
who  have  first  brought  out  the  idea  of  separate  interests,  by 
pbning  separate  and  distinct  charges.  It  was  their  men  and 
their  money,  which  had  conquered  North  America  and  the 
West  Indies,  as  well  as  yours,  though  you  seized  all  the  spoils; 
but  they  never  thought  of  dictating  to  you,  what  you  should 
keep,  or  what  you  should  give  up,  little  dreaming  that  you 
reserved  the  expense  of  your  military  governments  for  them. 
Who  gave  up  the  Havanna?  Who  gave  up  Martinique?  Who 

Eive  up  Guadaloupe,  with  Marigalante?  Who  gave  up  Santa 
ucia?  Who  gave  up  the  Newfoundland  fishery?  Who  gave 
up  all  these  without  their  consent,  without  their  participation, 
without  their  consultation,  and,  after  all,  without  equivalents? 
Sir,  if  your  colonies  had  but  been  permitted  to  have  gathered 
up  the  crumbs  which  have  fallen  from  your  table,  they  would 
gladly  have  supported  the  whole  military  establishment  of 
North  America." 

"  Your  colonies  have  now  shown  you  the  value  of  lands 
in  North  America;  and  therefore  you  have  vested  in  the  crown 
the  sovereignty,  property,  and  possession  of  infinite  tracts  of 
land,  perhaps  as  extensive  as  all  Europe,  which  the  crown 
may  dispose  of  at  its  own  price,  as  the  land  rises  in  America, 
and  grants  become  invaluable;  and  to  enable  the  crown  to  sup 
port  an  arbitrary,  military  government,  till  these  lands  rise  to 
their  future  immense  value,  you  are  casting  about  to  saddle 
the  expense  either  upon  the  American  or  the  British  supplies. 

"  This  country  is  very  liberal  in  its  boasting  of  its  protec 
tion  and  parental  kindness  to  America.  It  is  for  that  purpose 
that  we  have  converted  the  province  of  Canada  into  an  abso 
lute  and  military  government,  and  have  established  there 
the  Romish  church,  so  obnoxious  to  our  ancient,  and  Pro 
testant  colonies.  What  security,  what  protection  do  they 
derive?  In  what  sort  are  they  the  better  for  the  conquest  of 
the  French  dominions,  if  we  take  that  opportunity  to  establish 
a  government,  civil,  military,  and  ecclesiastical,  in  the  utmost 
degree  hostile  to  the  government  of  our  own  provinces,  and 
with  the  intent  to  set  a  thorn  in  their  sides?  Is  this  affection 
and  parental  kindness?  Surely  you  do  not  expect  that  they 
should  be  taxed  and  talliaged  to  pay  for  this  rod  of  iron, 
which  you  are  preparing  for  them !" 


142  MILITJV        EFFORTS,   SfC. 

PART.  i.  «  Now,  Sir,  I  come  to  a  point,  in  which  I  think  you  may 
^•^v-^'  be  said  to  have  given  some  protection,  I  mean  the  protection 
of  your  fleet  to  the  American  commerce.  And  even  here  I 
am  at  a  loss  by  what  terms  to  call  it;  whether  you  are  pro 
tecting  yourselves  or  them.  Theirs  are  your  cargoes,  your 
manufactures,  your  commerce,  your  navigation.  Every  ship 
from  America  is  bound  to  Britain.  None  enter  an  American 
port  but  British  ships  and  men.  While  you  are  defending 
the  American  commerce,  you  are  defending  Leeds  and 
Halifax,  Sheffield  and  Birmingham,  Manchester  and  Hull, 
Bristol  and  Liverpool,  London,  Dublin,  Glasgow.  However, 
as  our  fleet  does  protect  whatever  commerce  belongs  to  them, 
let  that  be  set  to  the  account.  It  is  an  argument  to  them  as 
well  as  to  us.  As  it  has  been  the  sole  policy  of  this  kingdom, 
for  ages,  by  the  operation  of  every  commercial  act  of  par 
liament,  to  make  the  American  commerce  totally  subservient 
to  our  own  convenience,  the  least  that  we  owe  to  them  in 
return  is  protection." 


143 


SECTION  V. 


OF  THE  BENEFITS  REAPED  BY  GREAT  BRITAIN  FROM  THE 
AMERICAN  TRADE. 

1.  IF  so  immense  a  gain,  of  which  she  retains  a  mighty  SECT.V, 
part  in  her  actual  North  American  possessions,  accrued  to  ^-^v-^ 
Great  Britain  from  the  military  efforts  of  the  thirteen  colonies, 
the  advantages  which  she  found  in  her  commercial  connexion 
with  them,  were  not  less  considerable.  Before  any  thing  had 
been  expended  upon  them,  they  began  to  enrich  the  treasury, 
and  feed  the  strength,  of  the  mother  country,  by  augmenting 
her  shipping,  giving  double  activity  to  her  trades  and  ma 
nufactures,  and  even  accelerating  the  increase  of  her  popula 
tion.  These  effects  were  quickly  perceived  and  announced 
by  those  of  her  earliest  writers  in  political  economy,  to  whom 
she  has  assigned  the  first  rank  among  their  cotemporaries.  To 
begin  with  the  testimony  of  Sir  Josiah  Child.  "  England  has 
constantly  improved  in  people,  since  our  settlement  upon  the 
plantations  in  America.  We  are  very  great  gainers  by  the 
direct  trade  of  New  with  Old  England.  Our  yearly  expor- 
tations  of  English  manufactures,  malt  and  other  goods  from 
hence  thither,  amounting,  in  my  opinion,  to  ten  times  the  va 
lue  of  what  is  imported  from  thence,  which  calculation  I  do 
not  make  at  random,  but  upon  mature  consideration,  and  per- 
adventure,  upon  as  much  experience  in  this  trade,  as  any  other 
person  will  pretend  to."*  "  The  plantations,"  says  Davenant, 
"  are  a  spring  of  wealth  to  this  nation;  they  work  for  us,  and 
their  treasure  centres  all  here.  It  is  better  our  islands  should 
be  supplied  from  the  northern  colonies  than  from  England — 
the  provisions  to  be  sent  to  them  would  be  the  unimproved 
product  of  the  earth,  whereas  the  goods  which  we  send  to  the 
northern  colonies,  are  such  whose  improvement  may  be  justly 
said,  one  with  another,  to  be  mar  four -fourths  of  the  value  of 
the  whole  commodity."! 

*  Discourse  on  Trade,  chap.  x. 
f  Discourse  on  Plantation  Trade, 


144  COMMERCIAL  OBLIGATIONS,  &C. 

PART  I.  "An  immense  wealth,"  says  Gee,*  "  has  accrued  to  us  by 
^^~v-^/  the  labour  and  industry  of  those  people  that  have  settled  in  our 
colonies.  Of  all  the  methods  of  enlarging  our  trade,  was  tin 
finding  out  of  our  plantations — the  tobacco  and  sugar  planta 
tions  were  indeed  the  cause  -of  increasing  our  shipping  and 
navigation.  If  we  examine  into  the  circumstances  of  the  in 
habitants  of  our  plantations,  it  will  appear  that  not  one-fourth 
part  of  their  product  redounds  to  their  own  profit.  There  are 
very  few  trading  or  manufacturing  towns  in  the  kingdom,  but 
have  some  dependence  on  the  plantation  trade." 

"  New  England  and  the  northern  colonies  have  not  com 
modities  and  products  enough  to  send  us  in  return  for  pur 
chasing  their  necessary  clothing,  but  are  under  very  great 
difficulties,  and  therefore  any  ordinary  sort  sells  with  them; 
and  when  they  are  grown  out  of  fashion  with  us,  they  are  new 
fashioned  enough  there;  and  therefore  those  places  are  the  great 
markets  we  have  to  dispose  of  such  goods,  which  are  gene 
rally  sent  at  the  risk  of  the  shop-keepers  and  traders  of 
England,  who  are  the  great  exporters,  and  not  the  inhabitants 
of  the  colonies,  as  some  have  imagined.  As  the  colonies  are 
a  market  for  those  sort  of  goods,  so  they  are  a  receptacle  for 
young  merchants  who  have  not  stocks  of  their  own;  and  there 
fore  all  our  plantations  are  filled  with  such  who  receive  the 
consignments  of  their  friends  from  hence;  and  when  they 
have  got  a  sufficient  stock  to  trade  with,  they  generally  return 
home,  and  other  young  men  take  their  places;  so  that  the  con 
tinual  motion  and  intercourse  our  people  have  in  the  colonies, 
may  be  compared  to  bees  of  a  hive,  which  go  out  empty,  but 
come  back  again  loaded,  by  which  means  the  foundation  of 
many  families  is  laid.  The  numbers  of  sailors  and  other  trades 
men,  who  have  all  their  dependence  upon  this  traffic,  are  pro 
digiously  great.  Our  factors,  who  frequent  the  northern  co 
lonies,  being  under  difficulties  to  make  returns  for  such  goods 
as  they  dispose  of,  what  gold,  silver,  logwood,  and  other  com 
modities  they  trade  for  upon  the  Spanish  coast,  is  sent  borne 
to  England;  as  also  oyl,  whale-fins,  and  many  other  goods. 
Likewise  another  great  part  in  returns  is  made  by  ships,  built 
there,  and  disposed  of  in  the  Streights,  and  other  parts  of  Eu 
rope,  and  the  money  remitted  to  us." 

"  There  is  another  advantage  we  receive  from  our  planta 
tions,  which  is  hardly  so  much  as  thought  on;  I  mean  the 
prodigious  increase  of  our  shipping,  by  the  timber  trade  be 
tween  Portugal,  &c.  and  our  plantations,  which  ought  to  have 

*  On  the  Trade  and  Navigation  of  Great  Britain,  chap.  xxxi. 


OF    GREAT    BRITAIN. 


145 


all  possible  encouragement;  for  by  it  we  have  crept  into  all  SECT.  v. 
the  corners  of  Europe,  and  become  the  common  carriers  in  v-^~v~^' 
the  Mediterranean,  as  well  as  between  the  Mediterranean. 
Holland,  Hambr'o,  and  the  Baltic,  and  this  is  the  cause  of  so 
great  an  addition  to  our  shipping,  and  the  reason  why  thr 
Dutch,  &c.  are  so  exceedingly  sunk." 

"  We  have  a  great  many  young  men  who  are  bred  to  the 
sea,  and  have  friends  to  support  them;  if  they  cannot  get  em 
ployment  at  home,  they  go  to  New  England,  and  the  northern 
colonies,  with  a  cargo  of  goods,  which  they  there  sell  at 
a  very  great  profit,  and  with  the  produce  build  a  ship,  and 
purchase  a  loading  of  lumber,  and  sail  for  Portugal  or  the 
Streights,  &c.  and  after  disposing  of  their  cargoes  there,  fre 
quently  ply  from  port  to  port  in  the  Mediterranean,  till  they 
have  cleared  so  much  money  as  will  in  a  good  part  pay  for  the 
first  cost  of  the  cargo  carried  out  by  them,  and  then  perhaps 
sell  their  ships,  come  home,  take  up  another  cargo  from  their 
employers,  and  so  go  back  and  build  another  ship;  by  this 
means  multitudes  of  seamen  are  brought  up,  and  upon  a  war 
the  nation  better  provided  with  a  greater  number  of  sailors 
than  hath  been  heretofore  known.  Here  the  master  becomes 
merchant  also,  and  many  of  them  gain  by  this  lumber  trade 
great  estates,  and  a  vast  treasure  is  thereby  yearly  brought  into 
the  kingdom,  in  a  way  new  and  unknown  to  our  forefathers, 
for  indeed  it  is  gaining  the  timber  trade,  (heretofore  carried 
on  by  the  Danes  and  Swedes,)  our  plantations  being  nearer 
the  markets  of  Portugal  and  Spain  than  they  are." 

The  great  productiveness  of  the  colonies  to  the  mother 
country,  thus  recognized  before  the  expiration,  and  at  the  be 
ginning,  of  the  eighteenth  century,  increased  in  a  geometrical 
progression  from  that  period,  and  drew  equally  pointed  ac 
knowledgments  from  later  writers.  In  the  year  1728,  Sir 
William  Keith,  a  man  of  superior  sagacity,  who  had  occupied 
the  station  of  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  and  investigated  per 
sonally  and  in  complete  detail,  the  commercial  relations  of 
North  America  with  the  other  parts  of  the  British  empire, 
submitted  to  the  British  government  a  very  able  discourse  on 
the  subject,*  in  which  he  presented  the  following  summary  of 
what  he  styled  "  the  principal  benefits  then  arising  to  Great 
Britain  from  the  trade  of  the  colonies." 

"  1 .  The  colonies  take  off  and  consume  above  one-sixth 
part  of  the  woollen  manufactures  exported  from  Great  Britain; 

*  See  the  whole  of  this  curious  and  interesting  paper,  in  Burk's  His 
tory  of  Virginia,  vol.  ii.  chap.  ii. 

VOL.  I.— T 


146 


COMMERCIAL    OBLIGATIONS 


PART  I.  which  is  the  chief  staple  of  England,  and  the  main  support  of 
s-^"v"^'/  the  landed  interest. 

"  2.  They  take  off  and  consume  more  than  double  that 
value  in  linen  and  callicoes,  which  are  partly  the  product  of 
Britain  and  Ireland,  and  partly  the  profitable  returns  made  for 
that  product  when  carried  to  foreign  countries. 

"  3.  The  luxury  of  the  colonies,  which  increases  daily, 
consumes  great  quantities  of  English  manufactured  silks,  ha 
berdashery,  household  furniture,  and  trinkets  of  all  sorts,  as 
also  a  very  considerable  value  in  East  India  goods. 

"  4.  A  great  revenue  is  raised  to  the  crown  of  Britain  by 
returns  made  in  the  produced  the  plantations,  especially  to 
bacco;  which  at  the  same  time  helps  England  to  bring  nearer 
to  a  balance  her  unprofitable  trade  with  France. 

"  5.  These  colonies  promote  the  interest  and  trade  of  Bri 
tain,  by  a  vast  increase  of  shipping  and  seamen,  which  enables 
them  to  carry  great  quantities  offish  to  Spain,  Portugal,  Leg 
horn,  &c.;  furs,  logwood,  and  rice,  to  Holland,  where  they 
keep  Great  Britain  considerably  in  the  balance  of  trade  with 
those  countries. 

"  6.  If  reasonably  encouraged,  the  colonies  are  now  in  a 
condition  to  furnish  Britain  with  as  much  of  the  following 
commodities  as  it  can  demand,  viz:  masting  for  the  navy  and 
all  sorts  of  timber,  hemp,  flax,  pitch,  tar,  oil,  rosin,  copper 
ore,  with  pig  and  bar  iron;  by  means  whereof  the  balance  of 
trade  to  Russia  and  the  Baltic,  may  be  very  much  reduced  in 
favour  of  Great  Britain. 

"  7.  The  profits  arising  to  all  those  colonies  by  trade,  are 
returned  in  bullion,  or  rather  useful  effects,  to  Great  Britain; 
where  the  superfluous  cash,  and  other  riches,  acquired  in 
America,  must  centre;  which  is  not  one  of  the  least  securities 
that  Britain  has,  to  keep  the  colonies  always  in  due  subjection. 

"8.  The  colonies  upon  the  main  are  the  granary  of  America, 
and  a  necessary  support  to  the  sugar  plantations,  in  the  West 
Indies,  which  could  not  subsist  without  them." 

To  exemplify  further  the  nature  of  this  commercial  inter 
course,  for  Great  Britain,  I  will  quote  the  case  of  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  as  Macpherson  represents  it  for  the  year  1731, 
from  the  best  authorities  of  that  day.* 

u  Virginia  and  Maryland  are  most  valuable  acquisitions  to 
Britain,  as  well  for  their  great  staple  commodity,  tobacco,  as 
for  pitch,  tar,  furs,  deer  skins,  walnut  tree  planks,  iron  in  pigs. 
and  medicinal  drugs.  Both  together  send  annually  to  Great 

*  Annals  of  Commerce,  vol.  iii. 


OF    GREAT   BRITAIN. 

Britain,  60,000  hogsheads  of  tobacco,  weighing,  one  with  SECT.  v. 
another,  600  pounds  weight,  which  at  2|d.  per  pound,  comes  v-*~v>w 
to  =£375,000.  And  the  shipping  employed  to  bring  home 
their  tobacco,  must  be  at  least  24,000  tons;  which  at  ^10  per 
ton,  is  =£240,000,  the  value  of  the  shipping;  the  greatest  part 
thereof  by  far  being  English-built,  continually  and  constantly 
fitted  and  repaired  in  England.  The  freight,  at  M.  10s.  per 
hogshead,  (the  lowest,)  is  j£90,000;  and  the  petty  charges  and 
commission,  on  each  hogshead,  not  less  than  ^1  or  ^60,000; 
which,  making  together  ^150,000,  we  undoubtedly  receive 
from  those  two  provinces  upon  tobacco  only.  The  net  pro 
ceeds  of  the  tobacco  may  be  =£225,000,  on  which  there  may 
be  about  five  per  cent,  commission  and  petty  charges,  being 
=£11,250.  There  is  also  imported  in  the  tobacco  ships  from 
those  two  provinces,  lumber,  to  the  value  of  ^£  15,000,  two- 
thirds  whereof  is  clear  gain,  it  not  costing  ^£4,000  in  that 
country,  first  cost  in  goods;  and  as  it  is  the  master's  privilege, 
there  is  no  freight  paid  for  it.  Skins  and  furs,  about  ^6,000 
value;  ^4,000  of  which  is  actual  gain  to  England.  So  the 
whole  gain  to  England  amounts  to  about  ^180,000,  annually: 
and  moreover  the  whole  produce  of  these  two  provinces  is 
paid  for  in  goods." 

Postlethwayt,  who  published  his  Universal  Dictionary  of 
Trade  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  bears  a  most  emphatic 
general  testimony.  "  Our  trade  and  navigation,"  says  this 
erudite  merchant,  u  are  greatly  increased  by  our  colonies;  they 
are  a  source  of  treasure  and  naval  power  to  this  kingdom. 
Before  their  settlements — our  manufactures  were  few — and 
those  but  indifferent — the  number  of  English  merchants  very 
small,  and  the  whole  shipping  of  the  nation  much  inferior  to 
what  now  belongs  to  the  northern  colonies  only.  These  are 
certain  facts.  But  since  their  establishment,  our  situation  has 
altered  for  the  better  almost  to  a  degree  beyond  credibility. 
Our  manufactures  are  prodigiously  increased, — chiefly  by 
the  demand  for  them  in  the  plantations,  where  they  at  least 
take  off  one-half,  and  supply  us  with  many  valuable  commo 
dities  for  exportation,  which  is  as  great  an  emolument  to  the 
mother  kingdom  as  to  the  plantations  themselves,"  &c. 

The  North  American  export  trade  of  Great  Britain  amount 
ed,  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  to  something 
less  than  four  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling;  then  no  in 
considerable  portion  of  her  whole  exports.  It  had  attained 
before  the  separation — to  three  millions  and  an  half  sterling, 
nearly  one-fourth  of  her  whole  cotemporaneous  export  trade, 
the  product  of  centuries  of  intercourse  with  all  the  world. 


148  COMMERCIAL    OBLIGATIONS 

PART  I.  The  particular  instance  of  the  Pennsylvania  trade  furnished  an 
s-^-v-^'  illustration  of  the  general  increase,  which  struck  the  British 
statesmen  with  admiration.  In  the  year  1704,  that  province 
consumed  only  =£11,459  in  value  of  foreign  commodities:  in 
1772,  fifty  times  as  much;  in  this  last  year  the  export  to  it 
from  Great  Britain  was  upwards  of  half  a  million  sterling. 

The  exports  to  the  North  American  colonies  alone — ex 
cluding  the  portion  of  the  African  trade  to  be  set  down  to 
their  account, — was  one  million  on  an  average,  from  1739  to 
1756 — two  million  three  hundred  thousand  from  1756  to 
1773 — three  millions  and  an  half  on  a  medium  of  the  years 
1771,  1772,  1773.  The  proportion  of  British  goods  to  foreign 
goods  exported  to  North  America,  was  of  three-fourths  British 
and  one-fourth  foreign;  whereas  to  the  West  Indies,  it  was  of 
two-thirds  British  and  one-third  foreign. 

The  foreign  and  circuitous  trade  of  the  northern  colonies, 
which  was  prosecuted  only  by  a  necessary  relaxation,  or  by 
an  evasion,  of  the  navigation  act,  redounded  equally  to  the 
profit  of  the  mother  country.     It  enabled  the  colonies  to  pay, 
and   consequently  led  them  to  call,  for  a  greater  quantity  of 
her  manufactures.     It  is  thus  fully  and  accurately  described 
in  the  third  volume  of  Macpherson's  Annals.     uThe  old 
northern  colonies  in  America,  it  is  well  known,  had  very  few 
articles  fit  for  the  British  market;  and  yet  they  every  year  took 
off  large  quantities  of  merchandise  from  Great  Britain,  for 
which  they  made  payments  with  tolerable  regularity.  Though 
they  could  not,  like  the  Spanish  colonists,  dig  the  money  out 
of  their  own  soil,  they  found  means  to  make  a  great  part  of 
their  remittances  in  gold  and  silver  dug  out  of  the   Spanish 
mines.     This  they  effected  by  being  great  carriers,  and  by  a 
circuitous  commerce,  carried  on  in  small  vessels,  chiefly  with 
the  foreign  West  India  settlements,  to  which  they  took  lum 
ber  of  all  sorts,  fish  of  an  inferior  quality,  beef,  pork,  butter, 
horses,  poultry,  and  other  live  stock;  an  inferior  kind  of  to 
bacco,  corn,  flour,  bread,  cyder,  and  even  apples,  cabbages, 
and  onions,  &c.;  and  also  vessels,  built  at  a  small  expense,  the 
materials  being  almost  all  within  themselves;  for  which  they 
received  in  return  mostly  silver  and  gold,  some  of  which  re 
mained  as  current  coin  among  themselves;  but  the  greatest 
part  was  remitted  home  to  Britain,  and  together  with  bills  oi 
exchange,  generally  remitted  to  London  for  the  proceeds  of 
their  best  fish,  sold  in  the  Roman  Catholic  countries  of  Europe 
served  to  pay  for  the  goods  they  received  from  the  mothej 
country.     This  trade  united  all  the  advantages,  which  thf. 
wisest  and  most  philanthropic  philosopher,  or  the  most  er 


OF    GREAT   BRITAIN. 


149 


lightened  legislator,  could  wish  to  derive  from  commerce.  It  SECT.  v. 
gave  bread  to  the  industrious  in  North  America,  by  carrying  ^^-v-^' 
off  their  lumber,  which  must  otherwise  rot  on  their  hands,  and 
their  fish,  great  part  of  which,  without  it  would  be  absolutely 
unsaleable,  together  with  their  spare  produce  and  stock  of 
every  kind;  it  furnished  the  West  India  planters  with  those 
articles,  without  which  the  operations  of  their  plantations  must 
be  at  a  stand;  and  it  produced  a  fund  for  employing  a  great 
number  of  industrious  manufacturers  in  Great  Britain;  thus 
taking  off  the  superfluities,  providing  for  the  necessities,  and 
promoting  the  happiness  of  all  concerned." 

Lord  Sheffield  even,  makes  the  acknowledgment,  that,  by 
this  circuitous  commerce,  they  must,  in  the  interval  between  the 
years  1700  and  1773,  have  obtained  from  other  countries,  and 
remitted  to  Great  Britain,  upwards  of  thirty  millions  sterling,  in 
payment  of  goods  taken  from  her,  over  and  above  the  amount  of 
all  their  produce  and  fisheries  remitted  directly.*  Mr.  Glover, 
in  the  beautiful  speech  which  he  delivered  at  the  bar  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  in  1775,  respecting  the  American  trade, 
presented,  among  many  striking  views  of  its  productiveness  to 
Great  Britain, the  following:  "Though  I  am  convinced,  that  the 
same  number  of  hands  at  least  is  devoted  to  agriculture  here, 
and  that  the  earth  at  a  medium  of  years  hath  yielded  the  same 
increase;  as  we  have  been  disposed  to  consume  it  all  among 
ourselves,  or  as  our  presumption  may  impute,  the  scarcity  to 
Providence,  restraining  the  fertility  of  our  soil  for  ten  years 
past,  in  either  case  we  could  not  spare,  as  heretofore,  our 
grain  to  the  foreigner;  a  reduction  in  our  exports,  one  year  with 
another,  of  more  than  ^600,000.     The  American  subjects 
took  place  of  the  British  in  markets  we  could  no  longer  sup 
ply;  extended  their  vent  from  season  to  season,  and  from  port 
to  port,  and  by  a  circuition  of  fresh  money,  thus  acquired  by 
themselves,  added  fresh  numbers  to  your  manufactures;  the 
rents  of  land  increasing  at  the  same  time,  till  the  amount  of 
exports  to  North  America  for  the  last  three  years  ending  at 
Christmas,  1773,  stands  upon  your  papers  at  ten  millions  and 
a  half,  or  three  millions  and  a  half  at  the  annual  medium." 

"  One  part  of  our  export  to  foreigners  is  supplied  by  colony 
produce,  tobacco,  rice,  sugar,  &c.  through  Great  Britain,  for  a 
million  sterling  at  a  low  estimation.  There  is  a  known  export 
of  linen,  exceeding  ^200,000,  supplied  by  North  Britain  to 
England  for  American  use.  The  North  British  colony-export 
in  addition,  is  about  =£400,000,  by  far  the  greater  part  to 

*  Observations  on  the  Commerce  of  the  American  States,  1784. 


150  COMMERCIAL   OBLIGATIONS 

PART  r.  the  tobacco  provinces.  The  whole  may  be  a  little  short  oi 
^*~*^s  =£700,000.  The  kingdom  of  Ireland  takes  from  England  little 
short  of  ^=2,400,000  annually  in  goods.  How  doth  she  pay 
for  them?  A  large  part  in  linen  and  yarn;  the  remainder  in 
cash,  acquired  by  her  foreign  traffic.  In  the  printed  report  to 
this  House,  from  their  linen  committee,  it  appears,  that,  in 
1771,  the  linen  made,  and  brought  to  market  for  sale  in  that 
kingdom,  for  its  own  use  and  ours,  amounted  to  ^2,150,000, 
and  the  yarn  exported  to  about  ^200,000.  This  immense  va 
lue,  the  employment  of  such  numbers,  hath  its  source  in  North 
America.  The  flax  seed  from  thence,  not  worth  ^40,000,  a 
trifle  to  that  continent,  forms  the  basis  of  Ireland,  and  reverts 
largely  in  manufacture  from  her  to  the  original  seat  of  growth, 
In  reply,  what  is  the  cry  of  my  magnanimous  countrymen 
without  doors?  Dignity!  Supremacy!  &c.  Upon  the  North 
American  imports  I  shall  only  remark,  that  the  most  consider 
able  part  of  their  bulky  productions  is  bought  by  the  foreigner; 
and  of  the  amount  consumed  in  Great  Britain,  the  exchequer 
hath  a  capital  share. n 

3.  In  the  calculation  which  Mr.  Burke  presented  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  in  his  speech  on  the  Conciliation  with 
America,  he  included  the  export  trade  of  Great  Britain  to  the 
West  Indies,  upon   the  ground  that  this  trade  and  the  North 
American  were  so  interwoven,  that  the   attempt  to  separate 
them  would  tear  to  pieces  the  contexture  of  the  whole,  and  if 
not  entirely  destroy,  very  much  depreciate  the  value  of  all 
the  parts.     The  observation  was  eminently  just,  as  nothing 
can  be  more  certain,  than    that  the  prosperity  of  the  West 
Indies  would  have  been  infinitely  less,  without  their  trade  with 
the  North  American  colonies.  It*was  by  this  means  that  they 
were  enabled  to  yield  those  ample  benefits  which   Great  Bri 
tain  derived  from  them,  in  the  great  consumption  and  in 
crease  of  her  manufactures;  in  the  employment  and  increase 
of  her  shipping  and  sailors;  in  the  enrichment  of  individuals; 
and  in  the  abundance  of  the  valuable  produce  poured  into 
her  lap.     Great  as  these  benefits  were,  they  fell,  however,  far 
short  of  those  of  the  same  kind,  which  accrued  to  her  directly 
from  the  North  American  colonies.    For  five  years,  from  1754 
to  1758,  inclusive,  her  exports  to  the  latter,  were,  in  the  total, 
near  eight  millions  sterling;  to  the  West  Indies,  not  four  mil 
lions;  and  in  the  course  of  the  term  just  mentioned,  the  in 
crease  of  export  to  the  northern  colonies,  was  almost  four 
millions;  whereas  that  to  the  West  Indies,  did  not  amount  to 
half  a  million. 


OF    GREAT    BRITAIN.  151 

The  value  of  the  provisions  sent  from  Great  Britain  to  her  SECT.  V. 
West  India  islands  was  trifling.  They  were  furnished  with  the  .v^>^w 
necessaries  of  life  by  the  North  American  colonies,  and  gene 
rally  at  about  half  the  price  at  which  they  could  have  been 
supplied  from  Great  Britain.  We  are  told  by  Dr.  Davenant,  in 
his  Discourse  on  the  Plantation  Trade,  that,  "  before  the  period 
at  which  he  wrote,  (1698,)  so  little  care  was  taken  for  the  con 
voys  which  were  to  protect  the  supplies  of  provisions  for  the 
West  India  Islands,  they  must,  many  times,  have  perished  for 
want,  if  they  had  not  been  supplied  by  the  northern  colonies." 
The  mother  country  was,  indeed,  for  the  most  part,  unable  to 
supply  them  at  all,  and  occasionally  indebted  to  the  same  source 
as  her  islands,  for  her  vital  sustenance.  "  Our  harvests,"  says 
an  able  English  writer,*  uin  a  series  of  years  were  not  suffi 
ciently  productive  to  afford  support  to  the  people;  whilst 
America  was  blessed  with,  abundance,  and  like  another  Egypt 
to  another  Canaan,  relieved  us  from  the  apprehension  of  a 
want  of  food,  and  from  the  danger  of  popular  commotions,  to 
obtain  by  force  what  the  poor  were  not  able  to  procure  by  pur 
chase.  Such  was  the  scarcity  of  corn  in  this  country,  at  the 
period  preceding  the  American  war,  that  even  the  immense 
importations  from  thence  proved  no  more  than  a  bare  supply." 

To  this  state  of  things,  Mr.  Burke  thus  eloquently  alludes, 
in  the  speech  mentioned  above.  u  For  some  time  past  the 
old  world  has  been  fed  from  the  new.  The  scarcity  which 
you  have  felt,  would  have  been  a  desolating  famine,  if  this 
child  of  your  old  age,  with  a  true  filial  piety,  with  a  Roman 
charity,  had  not  put  the  full  breast  of  its  youthful  exuberance 
to  the  mouth  of  its  exhausted  parent." 


*  Richard  Champion,  Esq.  deputy  pay  master  general  of  his  Bri 
tannic  majesty's  forces,  (1784,)  in  his  reply  to  Lord  Sheffield's 
pamphlet.  On  the  head  of  the  provision  for  the  West  Indies,  the  same 
enlightened  economist  makes  the  following  remarks.  "It  has  been 
asked  by  the  noble  lord,  how  did  the  West  India  colonies  subsist,  dur 
ing  the  war,  when  even  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia,  any  more  than  Eng 
land,  were  not  open  to  them,  without  great  expense  and  risque  ?  To 
this  question,  it  is  to  be  answered,  that  the  greater  part  of  the  Wind 
ward  and  Leeward  Islands  were  in  possession  of  the  French  ;  and  the 
three  which  remained  in  our  hands,  were  frequentlv  reduced  to  great 
distress.  The  planters  in  some  of  them  compromised  the  labour  of 
their  slaves  for  a  slender  daily  food.  The  situation  of  Bermuda  was 
so  deplorable,  that  some  of  the  poorest  inhabitants  were  actually  fa 
mished  ;  and  it  was  owing  to  the  humanity  of  the  Americans  tvho  suffer 
ed  them,  upon  their  application,  to  supply  themselves  -with  provisions  from 
their  states,  (from  Delaware  and  Connecticut  in  particular,)  that  the 
whole  people  did  not  perish  for  want," 


152 


COMMERCIAL    OBLIGATIONS 


PART  i.       Besides  provisions,  supplies  of  other  kinds,  which  might  bf 
also  said  to  have  been  indispensable,  and  unattainable  from  am 
other  quarter,  were  carried  to  the  West  Indies  by  the  Nortf 
American  colonies.     We  are  told  by  the  English  writers,  tha 
not  less  than  one  hundred  thousand  casks  and  puncheons  were 
in  a  year,  made  in  Jamaica,  from  American  staves  and  head 
ing;  that  the  different  towns  and  the  buildings  in  most  of  tin 
settlements  upon  the  sea  coast  of  that  island,  were  constructed 
with  timber  imported  from  America,  and  that  the  same  use 
of  those  articles, — many  of  them  in  a  greater  proportion,— 
prevailed  in  the  other  sugar  islands.     Bryan  Edwards*  esti 
mated   the  whole  value  of  the  American  commodities  im 
ported  into  them  annually,  at  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
pounds  sterling.     The  Americans  received  West  India  pro  • 
duce  in  barter,  to  the  amount  of  about  two-thirds,  and  the 
excess  of  one-third  found  its  way  to  England  for  the  purchase 
or  payment  of  goods.     Sugar  to  a  great  amount,  and  a  vast 
quantity  of  rum,  saleable  at  no  other  than  the  American  mar  • 
ket,  were  among  the  chief  articles  taken  in  return.     Some 
short  extracts  from  the  testimony  which  the  West  India  mer 
chants  gave  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1775, 
will  exhibit  this  intercourse  with  more  minuteness,  and  au 
thority. 

"  North  America  is  truly  the  granary  of  the  West  Indies: 
from  thence  they  draw  the  great  quantities  of  flour  and  bis 
cuit,  for  the  use  of  one  class  of  people,  and  of  Indian  corn, 
for  the  support  of  all  the  others;  for  the  support  not  of  man 
only,  but  of  every  animal;  for  the  use  of  man,  horses,  swine, 
sheep,  poultry.  North  America  also  furnishes  the  West  In 
dies  with  rice.  Rice,  a  more  expensive  diet,  and  less  capa 
ble  of  sustaining  the  body  under  hard  labour,  is  of  a  more 
limited  consumption,  but  it  is  a  necessary  indulgence  for  the 
young,  the  sick,  the  weakly,  amongst  the  common  people,  and 
the  negroes.  North  America  not  only  furnishes  the  West 
Indies  with  bread,  but  with  meat,  with  sheep,  poultry,  and 
some  live  cattle;  but  the  demand  for  these  is  infinitely  short  of 
the  demand  for  the  salted  beef,  pork  and  fish.  Salted  fish 
(if  the  expression  may  be  permitted  in  contrast  with  bread,) 
is  the  meat  of  all  the  lower  ranks  of  people  in  Barbadoes,  and 
the  Leeward  Islands.  It  is  the  meat  of  all  the  slaves  in  the 
West  Indies.  Nor  is  it  disdained  by  persons  of  better  condi 
tion.  The  North  American  navigation  also  furnishes  the 


Thoughts  on  the  connexion  between  America  and  the  West  Indies 


OF   GREAT  BRITAIN.  153 

sugar  colonies  with  salt  from  Turk's  Island,  Sal  Tortuga,  and  SECT.  v. 
Anguilla,  although  these  islands  are  themselves  a  part  of  the  ^^^-^^ 
West  Indies.     The  testimony  which  some  experience  has  en 
abled  me  to  bear,  you  will  find  confirmed  by  official  accounts." 

"  For  almost  every  purpose  of  the  carpenter  and  the  cooper, 
it  is  the  lumber  of  North  America  that  is  used.  The  part 
which  is  furnished  by  the  middle  colonies, of  North  America, 
is  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  others.  Without  lumber  to  re 
pair  the  buildings  they  run  immediately  to  decay.  And  with 
out  lumber  for  the  proper  packages  for  sugar,  and  to  contain 
rum,  they  cannot  be  sold  at  market;  they  cannot  even  be  kept 
at  home." 

"  As  to  rum,  the  dependence  of  all  the  islands,  except 
Jamaica,  is  as  great  upon  the  middle  colonies  of  North  Ame 
rica,  for  the  consumption  of  their  rum,  as  it  is  for  subsistence 
and  for  lumber.  The  rum  of  Barbadoes,  the  Leeward  Islands, 
and  the  government  of  Granada,  does  not  come  into  England, 
except  in  small  portions.  It  goes  in  part  to  Ireland;  and  all 
the  rest,  the  great  quantity,  is  distributed  chiefly  among  the 
middle  colonies  of  North  America,  agreeable  to  the  law  of 
reciprocal  exchange." 

4.  The  mother  country  was  benefitted  in  her  eastern  empire, 
by  the  great  consumption  of  tea  in  North  America.  Our  ad 
vocates  in  England,  during  the  disputes  which  immediately 
preceded  the  rupture,  alledged  that  her  usual  annual  demand 
had  amounted  to  ^600,000  sterling,  besides  great  sums  for 
piece-goods  and  china  ware.  It  is  suggested  in  Macpherson's 
Annals  of  Commerce,*  that  there  was  probably,  some  exag 
geration  in  this  statement;  but  admitting  the  amount  to  have 
been  less,  it  must  still  have  formed  an  important  contribution 
to  the  funds  of  the  East  India  Company. 

Of  the  vast  quantities  of  lumber  imported  by  Great  Bri 
tain  and  Ireland,  no  inconsiderable  part  was  drawn  from  the 
middle  colonies  of  North  America.  The  trade  arising  out 
of  the  cod  fishery,  furnished  near  one  half  of  the  remittances 
from  the  New  England  provinces  to  the  mother  country. 
The  produce  of  thehr  cod  fishery  was  divided  into  two- 
fifths  of  salted  fish  for  the  European  market,  and  three- 
fifths  for  the  West  India  market,  and  the  amount  of  sales  in 
the  European  continental  markets,  went  to  Great  Britain 
in  payment  of  goods  purchased  there.  The  spermaceti, 
whale  oil,  and  whale  bone,  proceeding  from  the  whale  fishery, 

*  Vol.  in.  p.  545. 

VOL.  I.— U 


154 


COMMERCIAL   OBLIGATIONS 


PART  i.  as  weii  as  t}ie  greater  part  of  the  cod  oil,  were  sent  to  Great 
-^^^^^  Britain,  and  ministered  essentially  to  her  manufactures.  Ac 
cording  to  the  statements  made  in  1775,  by  the  merchants  en 
gaged  in  the  Ameriean  trade,  to  the  House  of  Commons,  the 
fishery  generally,  and  carrying  the  fish  to  market  from  New 
England,  employed  at  that  period  about  fourteen  hundred  and 
fifty  vessels,  of  one  hundred  thousand  tons  burthen,  and  eleven 
thousand  fishermen  and  seamen. 

The  growth  and  extent  of  the  American  fisheries  are  thus 
exhibited  by  Seybert  in  his  Statistics.  "In  1670,  the  cod 
fishery  was  commenced  by  the  people  in  New  England;  such 
was  their  application,  that  in  1675,  they  had  in  this  employ 
ment  six  hundred  and  sixty-five  vessels,  which  measured 
25,650  tons,  and  navigated  by  4,405  seamen;  at  that  early 
period,  they  caught  at  the  rate  of  from  350,000  to  400,000 
quintals  of  fish  per  annum.  In  1715,  our  fishermen  first  pur 
sued  the  whale.  The  fish  then  known  as  the  Greenland 
whale,  frequented  our  northern  coasts;  in  a  very  short  time, 
the  activity  and  success  of  the  colonists  in  taking  them,  forced 
them  into  more  southern  latitudes,  where  the  intruders  were 
followed  by  the  harpoons  of  their  former  enemies;  they  were 
chased  off  the  Azores,  along  the  coast  of  Africa  and  Brazil, 
to  the  remote  regions  of  Falkland's  Island.  The  discovery 
of  a  new  species  of  whale  was  the  consequence  of  this  ex 
tensive  and  perilous  circumnavigation;  the  new  fish  was  found 
to  be  more  valuable  than  that  on  our  northern  coasts;  to  it 
they  gave  the  name  of  the  spermaceti  whale." 

"  In  1771,  the  Americans  employed  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
three  vessels,  measuring  13,820  tons,  in  the  northern;  and 
one  hundred  and  twenty-one  vessels,  measuring  14,020  tons, 
in  the  southern  whale  fishery;  these  vessels  gave  employment 
to  4,059  seamen.  From  1771  to  1775,  Massachusetts  em 
ployed  annually  one  hundred  and  eighty-three  vessels,  of 
13,120  tons,  in  the  northern  whale  fishery,  and  one  hundred 
and  twenty-one  vessels,  of  14,026  tons,  in  the  southern;  na 
vigated  by  4,059  seamen." 

"  Before  the  revolutionary  war,  the  small  island  of  Nan- 
tucket  had  sixty-five  ships,  of  4,875  tons,  annually  employed 
in  the  northern  ;  and  eigthty-five  ships,  of  10,200  tons,  in 
the  southern  fishery."* 

*  Feb.  9,  1778,  on  the  examination  of  witnesses  at  the  bar  of  Par 
liament,  respecting  the  commercial  losses  by  the  war  with  America — 
*«  Mr.  George  Davis  averred  that  he  had  been  26  years  concerned  in  the 
whale  and  cod  fishery ;  in  respect  to  the  former,  he  tried  to  take  -whales 
•with  men  from  England,  but  though  they  could  strike  them,  and  had. 
struck  several  of  late,  he  had  not  as  yet  taken  one,"  5cc. 


OF   GREAT   BRITAIN. 


155 


The  fact  is  not  a  little  significative,  that  for  the  encourage-  SECT.  v. 
ment  of  the  British  fisheries  separately,  oil  and  whale  fins,  taken  ^^^-^,- 
in  ships  belonging  to  Great  Britain,  were  allowed  to  be  im 
ported  in  her  vessels,  duty  free  ;  while  a  duty  was  im 
posed  on  the  importation  of  (he  same  articles,  taken  or  im 
ported  in  vessels  belonging  to  the  plantations.  Few  of  my 
readers  can  be  strangers  to  the  splendid  panegyric  of  Burke  » 
upon  the  unparalleled  industry  and  hardihood  displayed  by 
New  England  in  the  pursuit  of  the  whale.  It  may  not  be  un 
seasonable  to  recall  the  rebuke  addressed  to  the  British  Par 
liament,  with  which  he  prefaced  it,  as  well  as  the  merit  which 
he  commemorated.  u  As  to  the  wealth  which  the  colonies 
have  drawn  from  the  sea  by  their  fisheries,  you  had  all  that 
matter  fully  opened  at  your  bar.  You  surely  thought  those 
acquisitions  of  value,  since  they  seemed  even  to  excite  your 
envy;  and  yet  the  spirit  by  which  that  enterprising  employ 
ment  has  been  exercised,  ought  rather,  in  my  opinion,  to  have 
raised  your  admiration.  What  in  the  world  is  equal  to 
it,"  #c. 

5.  So  considerable  a  trade  as  that  between  the  colonies 
and  the  rest  of  the  British  empire  produced  a  correspondent 
increase  of  shipping.  The  one  hundred  thousand  hogsheads 
of  tobacco,  and  the  sixty  thousand  barrels  of  rice,*  annu 
ally  imported  into  Great  Britain, — employed  in  the  trans 
portation,  seventy  thousand  tons  of  shipping,  almost  wholly 
belonging  to  Great  Britain.  Altogether,  one  thousand  and 
seventy-eight  ships,  and  twenty-eight  thousand  nine  hun 
dred  and  ten  seamen,  were  engaged  in  the  American  trade. 
The  building  of  ships  for  sale  formed  a  material  branch  of 
the  industry  of  the  northern  and  middle  colonies,  and  was 
brought  to  great  perfection,  particularly  at  Philadelphia. 
They  supplied  the  mother  country  with  considerable  numbers, 
at  prices  much  inferior  to  the  standard  rate  of  her  cheapest 
ports.  She  found  an  important  advantage  in  this  supply,  in 
as  much  as  it  was  necessary  to  the  support  of  her  carrying 

*  By  the  act  of  3  Gee.  II.  c.  28.  all  rice  was,  for  the  second  time, 
declared  to  be  among  the  enumerated  commodities,  which  were  to  pay 
utax  on  being  transported  from  colony  to  colony,  and  who  could  not  be 
carried  directly  to  any  foreign  market.  This  act  established,  however, 
an  exception  to  the  general  rule  ;  and  allowed  that  "  any  of  his  majesty's 
subjects,  in  any  ship  or  vessel  built  in  Great  Britain,  or  belonging  to  any 
of  his  majesty's  subjects  residing  in  Great  Britain,  navigated  according 
to  law,  and  having  cleared  outward  in  any  port  of  Great  Britain  for  the 
province  of  Carolina,  may  ship  rice  in  the  same  province,  and  carry 
the  same  directly  to  any  part  of  Europe,  to  the  southward  of  Cape 
Finisterre." 


156  COMiMERClAL    OBLIGATIONS 

PART  i.  trade,  which,  to  use  the  language  of  her  writers,  "  attained 
^*~v~^  to  an  amazing  height  by  the  aid  of  her  colonies."  She  was 
unable  to  provide  enough  of  ships  of  her  own  construction  to 
answer  her  purposes;  and  this  is  attested  by  the  fact,  that  in  the 
course  of  the  revolutionary  war,  when  America  ceased  to  be 
the  provider,  the  foreign  shipping  employed  in  her  commerce, 
which  before  had  borne  the  proportion  of  twelve  to  forty,  rose 
to  that  of  twenty  nine  to  thirty-five.  Of  the  shipping  em 
ployed  in  the  commerce  of  Great  Britain,  398,000  tons  were 
of  the  built  of  America.  According  to  Dr.  Seybert's  Statistics, 
the  proportion  of  the  tonnage  employed  in  the  commerce  of 
the  colonies  and  Great  Britain,  owned  by  the  inhabitants  of 
Great  Britain,  amounted  to  about  three  and  two-third  eighths; 
the  proportion  which  belonged  to  British  merchants,  occasion 
ally  resident  in  those  colonies,  was  about  two-eighths,  making 
together  nearly  six-eighths  of  the  whole,  and  the  proportion 
of  the  tonnage  so  employed,  which  belonged  to  merchants, 
who  were  natives  and  permanent  inhabitants  of  those  colo 
nies,  was  rather  more  than  two  and  one-third  eighths  of  the 
whole. 

Of  the  tonnage  employed  in  the  trade  of  the  colonies  with 
tb*T  British  West  Indies,  five-eighths  belonged  to  merchants, 
who  were  permanent  inhabitants  of  those  colonies,  and  three- 
eighths  to  British  merchants,  who  resided  occasionally  in  the 
colonies.  ^ 

None  of  the  colonies  to  the  north  of  Maryland  ever  had 
a  balance  in  their  favour  in  the  trade  with  the  mother 
country;  but  always,  on  the  contrary,  a  large  balance  against 
them.  The  exports  of  all  the  colonies,  for  the  year  1770, 
amounted  at  least  to  three  millions  sterling;*  the  whole  of 
which  may  be  said  to  have  turned  to  her  account.  What  she 
did  not  consume  herself  of  their  productions,  she  received  as 
the  entrepot  for  Europe,  to  the  great  inconvenience  and  loss 
of  the  American  owner;  and  the  proceeds  of  that  proportion 
of  them — one-sixth  only — which  went  directly  from  America 
to  continental  Europe,  were  invested  in  her  manufactures.  I 
do  not  think  it  necessary  to  mark  the  particular  utility  of  the 
several  articles  which  she  consumed,  and  will  content  myself 
on  this  head,  with  repeating  after  Mr.  Burke,  "  If  I  were  to 
detail  the  imports  of  England  from  North  America,  I  could 

*  "  An  estimate  was  made  this  year,"  (1769)  says  Macphersnn,  (An 
nals,  vol. iii.  p.  493,)  "of  the  trade  of  the  North  American  Provinces, 
including  Hudson's  Bay  and  Newfoundland ;  and  the  exports  from 
Great  Britain,  are  made  to  amount  to  3,370,900/.  and  the  exports frorr 
the  colonies  to  3,924,  6261."  &c. 


OF    GREAT    BRITAIN. 


157 


show  how  many  enjoyments  they  procured,  which  deceive  the  SECT.  V. 
burden  of  life;  how  many  materials  which  invigorated 
springs  of  national  industry,  and  extended  and  animated  every 
part  of  British  foreign  and  domestic  commerce."  With  respect 
to  the  trade  with  the  Indians  in  America,  that  was  wholly  on 
account  of  Great  Britain.  Dr.  Franklin  stated,  in  his  exami 
nation  before  the  House  of  Commons,  what  could  not  be  de 
nied, — that  this  trade  u  though  carried  on  in  America  was  not 
an  American  interest;  that  the  people  of  America  were  chiefly 
farmers  and  planters,  and  scarce  any  thing  which  they  raised  or 
produced  was  an  article  of  commerce  with  the  Indians;  that 
the  Indian  trade  was  a  British  interest:  was  carried  on  with 
British  manufactures  for  the  profit  of  British  merchants  and 
manufacturers." 

Connected  with  this  head  of  the  trade  between  the  colonies 
and  the  mother  country,  there  is  one  accusation  often  repeated 
against  the  former,  on  which  I  would  say  a  few -words:  I  allude 
to  their  pretended  backwardness  in  paying  their  debts  to  the 
British  merchants.  This  accusation  was  abundantly  refuted 
by  the  British  merchants  and  manufacturers  themselves;  who 
bore  emphatic  testimony  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
in  1775,  of  the  fair  dealing  and  good  faith  of  their  American 
customers.  It  is,  moreover,  rendered  highly  improbable,  by 
the  fact,  that,  although  six  millions  sterling  were  owing  the 
latter,  in  December, "l  774,  yet,  in  December,  1775,  two  mil 
lions  only  remained  to  be  paid;  four  millions  having  been  re 
mitted,  even  when  a  separation  seemed  inevitable.*  It  is 
true,  that  at  an  earlier  period,  some  few  British  traders  had 
complained  of  the  laws  in  force  in  the  plantations,  for  the  re 
covery  of  debts,  and  that  parliament  had,  in  consequence, 
passed  a  tyrannical  bill,f  which  altered  the  nature  of  evidence 
in  their  courts  of  common  law,  and  the  nature  of  their  estates, 
by  treating  real  estates  as  chattels.  To  facilitate  the  proof 
and  recovery  of  debts,  it  enacted,  that  an  affidavit  taken  be 
fore  ihe  mayor,  or  other  chief  magistrate  of  any  town  in  Eng 
land,  and  properly  authenticated,  should  be  received  as  legal 
evidence  in  all  the  courts  of  the  plantations,  and  have  the 
same  force  and  effect  as  the  personal  oath  of  the  plaintiff 
made  there  in  open  court;  and  that  lands,  houses,  negroes,  and 
all  real  estate  whatsoever,  should  be  liable  to,  and  chargea 
ble  with  all  debts  due  either  to  the  king,  or  any  of  his  sub 
jects,  and  be  assets  for  the  satisfaction  thereof,  &c. 


Champion,  p.  269.  f  5  Geo.  II.  c.  7 


158  COMMERCIAL   OBLIGATIONS 

PART  I.  6.  On  this  subject  of  the  trade  of  America  with  the  mother 
••^-v~^>  country,  it  would  have  been  almost  enough  to  have  cited  the 
testimony  borne  by  Mr.  Burke  and  Lord  Chatham.  The  fol 
lowing  passage  of  the  speech  of  the  former,  on  the  Concilia 
tion  with  America,  arose  immediately  out  of  his  consi 
deration  of  the  custom  house  returns,  and  of  the  evidence  of 
notorious  facts.  "  The  trade  with  America  alone  is  now  within 
less  than  ^500,000  of  being  equal  to  what  this  great  com 
mercial  nation,  England,  carried  on  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century  with  the  whole  world!  If  I  had  taken  the  largest  year 
of  those  on  your  table,  it  would  rather  have  exceeded.  But, 
it  will  be  said,  is  not  this  American  trade  an  unnatural  pro 
tuberance,  that  has  drawn  the  juices  from  the  rest  of  the  body? 
The  reverse.  It  is  the  very  food  that  has  nourished  every  other 
part  into  its  present  magnitude.  Our  general  trade  has  been 
greatly  augmented;  and  augmented  more  or  less, in  almost  every 
part  to  which  it  ever  extended ;  but  with  this  material  difference ; 
that  of  the  six  millions  which  in  the  beginning  of  the  century, 
constituted  the  whole  mass  of  our  export  commerce,  the  co 
lony  trade  was  but  one-twelfth  part;  it  is  now  (as  a  part  of 
sixteen  millions)  considerably  more  than  a  third  of  the  whole." 
There  is  something  still  more  direct  and  conclusive  in  the 
language  of  Chatham.  He  spoke  with  all  the  authority  which 
official  station  could  possibly  give  in  any  matter.  "  When  I 
had  the  honourof  serving  his  majesty,  I  availed  myself,"  said 
this  illusftious  statesman,  in  one  of  his  speeches  against  Gren- 
ville's  scheme  of  taxation,  u  of  the  means  of  information, 
which  I  derived  from  my  office;  I  speak  therefore  from  know 
ledge.  My  materials  were  good.  I  was  at  pains  to  collect, 
to  digest,  to  consider  them;  and  I  will  be  bold  to  affirm,  that 
the  profit  to  Great  Britain,  from  the  trade  of  the  colonies, 
through  all  its  branches,  is  two  millions  a  year.  This  is  the 
fund  that  carried  you  triumphantly  through  the  last  war.  The 
estates  that  were  rented  at  two  thousand  pounds  a  year,  three 
score  years  ago,  are  three  thousand  pounds  at  present.  Those 
estates  sold  then  from  fifteen  to  eighteen  years  purchase;  the 
same  may  now  be  sold  for  thirty.  You  owe  this  to  America 
This  is  the  price  Jlmerica  pays  you  for  her  protection." 

The  quotations  which  I  have  made  from  Adam  Smith,  in 
the  first  section,  develop  the  nature  of  the  commercial  re 
straint  under  which  the  colonies  existed.  It  was,  in  the 
theory,  a  condition  of  rigorous  servitude.  They  could 
import  no  commodity, — with  the  exception  of  a  few  articles, — 
of  the  growth  or  manufacture  of  Europe,  but  through  Great 
Britain;  they  were  allowed  a  direct  foreign  trade,  only  so  far 


OP    GREAT   BRITAIN. 


159 


as  was  required  by  her  interests.  "  The  policy  of  Great  Bri-  SECT  V. 
tain,"  said  Mr.  Burke,  addressing  the  House  of  Commons,  v^-vx*' 
u  was,  from  the  beginning,  the  system  of  a  monopoly.  No 
trade  was  let  loose  from  that  constraint,  but  merely  to  enable 
the  colonists  to  dispose  of  what,  in  the  course  of  your  trade, 
you  could  not  take;  or  to  enable  them  to  dispose  of  such  arti 
cles  as  we  forced  upon  them,  and,  for  which,  without  some 
degree  of  liberty,  they  could  not  pay.  Hence  all  your  specific 
and  detailed  enumerations;  hence  the  innumerable  checks  and 
counterchecks;  hence  that  infinite  variety  of  paper  chains  by 
which  you  bind  together  this  complicated  system  of  the  colo 
nies.  This  principle  of  commercial  monopoly  runs  through 
no  less  than  twenty-nine  acts  of  parliament,  from  the  year 
1660  to  the  unfortunate  period  of  1764."* 

The  celebrated  navigation  act  of  12  Car.  II.  not  only  pre 
scribed  in  what  vessels,  and  to  what  places,  the  goods  of  the 
colonies  might  be  exported,  but  it  limited  one  of  their  internal 
rights;  it  prescribed  what  persons  might  act  as  merchants  or 
factors,  in  the  colonies.  Three  years  afterwards,  the  Parlia 
ment  passed  another  bill,  "  to  maintain,"  as  they  expressed 
themselves,  "  a  greater  correspondence  and  kindness  between 
the  colonies  and  England;  to  keep  them  in  a  firmer  depend 
ence  on  it;  to  make  the  kingdom  a  staple,  not  only  of  the 
commodities  of  the  plantations,  but  also  of  the  commodities 
of  other  countries  for  supplying  them."  This  act  (15  Car. 
ii.  c.  7.)  directed  accordingly,  that  no  European  goods  should 
be  imported  into  the  plantations,  but  such  as  should  be  shipped 
in  England,  and  proceed  directly  on  board  English  or  planta 
tion-ships,  &c.  The  penalty  was  forfeiture  of  the  goods  and 
vessel;  one-third  to  the  king,  one  to  the  governor  of  the  plan 
tation,  if  the  seizure  v.  ere  made  there,  and  one  third  to  the  in 
former.  And  to  facilitate  the  recovery  of  the  penalties,  the 
informer  had  his  option  of  suing  either  in  the  king's  courts, 
where  the  offence  was  committed,  or  in  any  court  of  record  in 
England. 

Many  of  the  articles  which  the  colonies  were  compelled  to 
buy  of  the  mother  country,  could  have  been  procured  at  a 
much  cheaper  rate  elsewhere.  She  could  charge  her  manu 
factures  with  what  imposts  she  pleased,  and  the  burden  fell 
ultimately  upon  the  American  consumer.  It  was  stated  to  her 
ministers,  by  the  agents  of  the  colonies,  that  from  the  extra 
ordinary  demand  in  America,  for  her  fabrics,  she  reaped  an 
advantage  of  at  least  twenty  per  cent,  in  the  price,  beyond 


*  Speech  on  American  taxation 


160  COMMERCIAL   OBLIGATIONS 

PART  I.   what  the  articles  could  be  purchased  for  at  foreign  markets. 

^^-v-^'  The  forced  accumulation  of  American  produce  in  her  ports, 
reduced  its  price,  by  which  she  gained,  on  what  she  consumed, 
exactly  in  proportion  to  the  loss  of  the  colonists.  The  profit 
accruing  to  her  from  the  portion  re-exported,  was  obviously 
considerable.  Taking  off,  as  the  colonies  did  in  the  latter 
years  of  their  dependence,  two  millions  annually  of  her  manu 
factures,  and  depositing  with  her,  compulsorily,  produce  nearly 
to  the  same  amount,  it  must  be  sufficiently  clear,  when  the 
otlier  circumstances  just  stated,  are  kept  in  view,  that  they 
paid  an  enormous  indirect  tax,  independently  of  the  charges 
to  which  they  were  liable,  as  a  consequence  of  her  Eu 
ropean  quarrels.  Happily  their  domestic  governments,  cas;; 
in  the  simplest  mould,  and  unencumbered  with  pageantry  or 
surplusage  of  any  kind,  subjected  them  to  no  heavy  expense 
"  All  the  different  civil  establishments  in  North  America," 
said  Adam  Smith,  "exclusive  of  those  of  Maryland  and  North 
Carolina,  did  not,  before  their  revolt,  cost  the  inhabitant!; 
above  ^64,700  a  year;  an  ever  memorable  example  at  how 
small  an  expense  three  millions  of  people  may  not  only  be 
governed,  but  well  governed."* 

What  has  been  said  conveys  an  adequate  idea  of  the  situa 
tion  in  which  the  North  American  colonies  were  placed  as  to 
trade,  but  I  wish  to  offer  something  more  in  illustration  of  the 
precipitation  and  levity,  with  which  their  interests,  and  the 
true  interests  of  the  mother  country  at  the  same  time,  were 
sacrificed,  under  the  influence  of  an  undistinguishing  selfish 
ness,  I  may  quote  as  of  perfect  accuracy, — since  no  British 
writer  ventured  to  contradict  them, — the  following  statements 
which  Franklin  published  in  London,  in  1768. 

"  They  (the  colonies,)  reflected  how  lightly  the  interest  of 
all  America  had  been  estimated  here,  when  the  interests  of  a 
few  of  the  inhabitants  of  Great  Britain  happened  to  have  the 
smallest  competition   with   it.      That  the  whole  American 
people  was  forbidden  the  advantage  of  a  direct  importation  of 
wine,  oil,  and  fruit,  from  Portugal;  but  must  take  them  loaded 
with  all  the  expense  of  a  voyage,  one  thousand  leagues  round 
about,  being  to  be  landed  first  in  England,  to  be  re-shipped 
for  America;  expenses,  amounting  in  war  time  at  least  to 
thirty  pounds  per  cent,  more  than  otherwise  they  would  have 


*  W.  of  N.  c.  vii.  b.  iv.  It  bespeaks  an  extraordinary  share  of  politi 
cal  virtue  in  the  colonists,  to  have  resisted,  as  they  did,  during1  so  long1 
and  close  a  connexion,  the  example  of  the  mother  country,  on  the  score; 
of  public  expenditure  and  aristocratical  distinctions. 


OP    GREAT    BRITAIN. 

b«en  charged  with;  anil  all  this  merely,  that  a  few  Portugal  SECT.  V. 
merchants  in  London  may  gain  a  commission  on  those  goods  \^*v^s 
passing  through  their  hands. 

"  On  a  slight  complaint  of  a  few  merchants  trading  with 
Virginia,  nine  colonies  were  restrained  from  making  paper 
money,  become  absolutely  necessary  to  their  internal  com 
merce,  from  the  constant  remittance  of  their  gold  and  silver 
to  Britain.  But  not  only  the  interest  of  a  particular  body  of 
merchants,  but  the  interest  of  any  small  body  of  British  trades 
men  or  artificers,  has  been  found  to  outweigh  that  of  ail  the 
king's  subjects  in  the  colonies. 

u  Iron  is  to  be  found  every  where  in  America,  and  beaver 
are  the  natural  produce  of  that  country:  hats  and  nails  and 
steel  are  wanted  there  as  well  as  here.  It  is  of  no  importance 
to  the  common  welfare  of  the  empire,  whether  a  subject  of  the 
king  gets  his  living  by  making  hats  on  this  or  on  that  side  of 
the  water.  Yet  the  hatters  of  England  have  prevailed  to  ob 
tain  an  act  in  their  own  favour,  restraining  that  manufacture  in 
America,  in  order  to  oblige  the  Americans  to  send  their  beaver 
to  England  to  be  manufactured;  and  purchase  back  the  hats, 
loaded  with  the  charges  of  a  double  transportation.  In  the 
same  manner  have  a  few  nail-makers,  and  still  a  smaller 
body  of  steel-makers,  (perhaps  there  are  not  half  a  dozen  of 
these  in  England,)  prevailed  totally  to  forbid,  by  an  act  of  par-  L 
liament,  the  erecting  of  slitting  mills,  or  steel  furnaces  in 
America;  that  the  Americans  may  be  obliged  to  take  all  their 
nails  for  their  buildings,  and  steel  for  their  tools,  from  these 
artificers,  under  the  same  disadvantages,"  &c. 

7.  I  may  be  permitted,  before  I  leave  this  topic  of  com 
mercial  obligation,  to  advance  to  a  more  recent  period.  If  a 
British  statesman  could  not,  after  the  American  war,  say  ab 
solutely,  as  Chatham  had  done  before  its  occurrence — "  Ame 
rica  is  the  fountain  of  our  wealth,  the  nerve  of  our  strength, 
the  basis  of  our  power,"  he  might,  however,  safely  ascribe  no 
inconsiderable  share  of  the  continued  prosperity  of  the  British 
isles,  to  the  commercial  intercourse  which  was  re-established 
with  her,  and  to  her  increase  in  wealth  and  population.  Her 
vast  consumption  of  British  manufactures,  her  abundant  pro 
duction  of  the  raw  materials,  cotton  particularly,*  her  imports 

*  In  1791,  the  first  parcel  of  cotton  of  American  growth,  was  export 
ed  from  the  United  States  Calculated  on  the  average  of  the  six  years, 
from  1806  to  1811,  there  was  annually  importe  i  into  Great  Brita<nj  from 
the  United  States,  34,568,487  pounds,  and  in  1811,  46,872,452  pounds. 

VOL.  I.— X. 


10*  COMMERCIAL  OBLIGATIONS 

PART  I.  from  the  East  Indies,  her  traffic  with  the  West,  the  diffusion. 
>^~v~^'  through  her  means,  of  the  British  commodities  of  every  de 
scription  over  the  continent  of  Europe,  gave  her,  in  her  inde 
pendent  state,  an  aspect  nearly  approaching  to  that   under 
which  Chatham   saw  her  in  the  colonial.     A  distinguished 
member  of  the  British  parliament,  Mr.  Alexander  Baring,  ex 
amined  fully  in  1808,  with  the  advantages  of  practical  know 
ledge  and  much  general  commercial  learning,  the  question  of 
her  increased  utility,  and  pronounced  that,  upon  the  whole, 
she  had,  in  her  independent  situation,  to  a  greater  degree  than 
could  have  been  expected  from  any  other,  been  the  means  of 
augmenting  the  British  resources,  in  the  war  with  the  conti 
nental  powers — that  she  contributed  in  the  highest  degree  pos 
sible,  all  the  benefits  which  one  nation  could  derive  from  the  ex 
istence  of  another,  or  that  one  mother  country  could  receive 
from  that  of  the  best  regulated  colony.*     The  same  enquirer 
ascertained,  that  three-fourths  of  the  money  proceeding  from 
the  consumption  of  the  produce  of  the  soil  of  America,  in  all 
parts  of  the  world,  were  paid  to  Great  Britain  for  her  manu 
factures.     He  developed  other  benefits,  the  reality  of  which 
did   not  admit  of  dispute,  and  found  it  unpardonable  "  that 
his  countrymen  should  entertain  a  jealousy  of  the  prosperity 
and  wealth  American  independence  had  produced,  which  not 
only  served  to  circulate  the  produce  of  their  industry,  where 
they  could  not  carry  it  themselves,  but  by  increasing  the  means 
of  America,  augmented  in  the  same  proportion  her  consump 
tion  of  that  produce,  at  a  time  when  the  loss  of  their  former 
customers,  by  the  persecutions   of  France,  rendered  it  most 
valuable." 

It  will  be  enough,  for  the  present,  in  addition  to  these  re 
marks,  to  state  the  leading  facts  in  the  history  of  our  indepen 
dent  trade  with  the  British  empire,  as  they  are  exhibited  in 
the  valuable  works  of  Pitkin  and  Seybert. 

The  amount  of  goods  imported  into  the  United  States  from 
England  in  the  year  1 784,  must  have  been  about  eighteen 
millions  of  dollars,  and  in  1785,  about  twelve  millions;  mak 
ing,  in  those  two  years,  thirty  millions  of  dollars;  while  the 


In  1755,  the  cotton  manufacture,  in  England,  was  ranked  "  among  the 
humblest  of  the  domestic  arts ;"  the  products  of  this  branch  were  then 
almost  entirely  for  home  consumption  ;  in  1797,  it  took  the  lead  of  all 
the  other  manufactures  in  Great  Britain,  and  in  1809,  gave  employment 
to  80U,000  persons,  and  its  annual  value  was  estimated  at  30,000,000/- 
or  132,000,000  of  dollars.— Seybert. 

*  Examination  of  the  Orders  in  Council,  &c. 


OF    GREAT   BRITAIN.  163 

exports  of  the  United  States  to  England,  were  only  between  SECT  v. 
eight  and  nine  millions.  v^~>^^ 

On  the  average  of  the  six  years,  posterior  to  the  war  of  our 
revolution,  ending  with  1789,  the  merchandise  annually  im 
ported  into  Great  Britain,  from  the  United  States,  amounted 
to  908,63ft/.  sterling;  and  the  importations  into  the  United 
States,  from  Great  Britain,  on  the  same  average,  amounted 
annually  to  2,119,837/.  sterling;  leaving  an  annual  balance 
of  l,2l'l,201/.  sterling,  or  5,329,284  dollars,  in  favour  of 
Great  Britain.  In  1792,  according  to  the  estimate  of  the 
American  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  our  exports  to  Great 
Britain  and  her  dominions  amounted  to  9,363,416  dollars,  and 
our  imports  to  15,285,428  dollars.  Much  the  greater  part  of 
the  imports  was  from  Great  Britain,  exclusive  of  her  depen 
dencies. 

From  sundry  British  documents  it  appears,  that  the  United 
States,  from  1793  to  1800,  imported  from  Great  Britain  a 
greater  amount  of  manufactures  than  were  exported  from 
Great  Britain  during  the  same  period  to  all  foreign  Europe. 
In  1800,  the  United  States  received  from  Great  Britain  more 
than  one-fourth  of  the  amount  of  the  manufactured  articles 
exported  by  her  to  all  parts  of  the  world. 

During  the  seven  years  from  1795  to  1801,  both  inclusive, 
the  balance  of  trade  with  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  the 
dominions  thereof,  was  uniformly  against  the  United  States, 
and  in  the  aggregate  amounted  to  106,118,104  dollars,  or 
15,159,748/.  per  .annum.  The  balance  in  favour  of  Great 
Britain  was  only  70,116  dollars  less  than  the  apparent  unfa 
vourable  balance  produced  by  our  trade  with  all  parts  of  the 
world  collectively  taken. 

In  1800,  the  merchandise  exported  from  Great  Britain  was 
worth  16/.  14§.  sterling,  or  74.23  dollars  per  ton;  and  that 
imported  from  Great  Britain  into  the  United  States  was  worth 
54/.  4s.  sterling,  or  240.89  dollars  per  ton. 

In  1802, 1803,  and  1804,  there  was  annually  imported  into 
the  United  States,  from  the  British  possessions  in  Europe,  of 
merchandise  paying  duties  ad  valorem,  and  of  other  manufac 
tured  articles  subject  to  specific  duties,  the  aggregate  of 
27,400,000  dollars:  if  we  admit  that  one-fourth  of  this 
amount  was  re-exported,  20,550,000  dollars  of  the  value 
thereof  remained  for  the  annual  consumption  of  our  popula 
tion;  the  profits  on  which  were  gained  by  Great  Britain.  It 
is  generally  calculated  that  raw  materials  gain  seven  fold  by 
being  manufactured.  Such  were  our  contributions  in  those 


164  COMMERCIAL    OBLIGATIONS 

PART  I.   years,  for  the  advancement  of  the  skill   and  industry  of  the 
^-v-^  British  nation. 

On  the  average  of  the  three  years,  1802,  1803,  and  1804, 
the  annual  value  of  the  merchandise  exported  from  the  Uni 
ted  Slates  to  the  dominions  of  Great  Britain,  amounted  to 
18,6(J5,777  dollars;  and  on  the  average  of  the  same  three 
years,  the  annual  value  of  the  merchandise  imported  into  the 
United  States  from  Great  Britain  amounted  to  35,737,030 
dollars;  leaving  an  annual  balance  of  17,071,253  dollars 
against  the  United  States. 

The  real  value  of  British  produce  and  manufacture  export 
ed  to  the  United  States,  on  an  average  of  the  years  1806  and 
1807,  was  1 1,417,834L  sterling,  or  about  50,500,000  dollars; 
making  one  quarter  and  one-third  of  all  the  exports  of  British 
produce  and  mauufac'ure  during  those  two  years.  By  the  Eng 
lish  accounts,  the  real  value  of  cotton  and  woollen  goods  ex 
ported  to  the  United  States  from  England,  on  an  average  ot 
the  same  two  years,  was  8,984,886J.  or  about  39,500,000 
dollars,  as  valued  in  England. 

In  1807,  the  amount  of  goods,  paying  duties  ad  valorem, 
was  nearly  39,000,000  of  dollars;  when  we  add  the  goods 
imported,  in  the  same  year,  duty  free,  an.d  those  subject  to 
specific  duties,  the  whole  amount  imported  from  Great  Britain 
in  1807,  would  not,  it  is  believed,  fall  much  short  of 
50,000,000  of  dollars. 

The  aggregate  value  of  the  exports  of  every  description  to 
the  United  States  from  Great  Britain,  during  the  seven  years, 
from  1805  to  1811,  amounted  to  62,266,6682.  sterling,  01 
annually  to  36,470,471  dollars;  their  aggregate  value  to  all 
parts  of  the  world  during  the  seven  years  amounted  to 
376,977,1601  sterling,  or  annually  to  220,800,498  dollars; 
or,  the  United  States  received  annually,  of  the  merchandise 
of  every  description,  exported  to  all  parts  of  the  world  from 
Great  Britain,  16.51  per  centum,  or  one-sixth  of  the  aggre 
gate  value  thereof. 

On  the  average  of  the  seven  years,  from  1805  to  181 1,  the 
aggregate  value  of  the  British  produce  and  manufactures  an 
nually  exported  from  Great  Britain  to  the  United  States, 
amounted  to  35,441,367  dollars;  and  the  annual  value  of  the 
domestic  produce  of  the  United  States  exported  to  Great 
Britain,  calculated  on  the  same  average,  amounted  to 
9,124,941  dollars;  leaving  an  annual  balance  of  26,316,426 
dollars  in  favour  of  Great  Britain.  Or  the  annual  value  of 
the  exports  of  every  description  from  Great  Britain  to  the  Uni 
ted  States,  on  the  average  aforesaid,  amounted  to  36,470,471 


OF    GREAT   BRITAIN.  165 

dollars;  and  the  aggregate  annual  value  of  the  exports  of  every  SECT.  V. 
description  from  the  United  States  to  Great  Britain  and  her  s^">^^> 
dependencies,  her  East  India  possessions  excepted,  amounted 
to  16,438,362  dollars;  leavingan  annual  balance  of  20,032,109 
dollars  in  favour  of  Great  Britain. 

On  the  return  of  peace  between  the  two  countries,  in  1815, 
the  importation  of  British  goods  was  great  beyond  example. 
From  the  1st  of  January  to  the  31st  of  December,  1815,  the 
amount  of  goods  paying  duties  ad  valorem,  imported  from 
Great  Britain  and  her  dominions,  was  71,400,599  dollars. 
Nearly  the  whole  of  this  sum  was  made  up  from  goods  coming 
directly  from  Great  Britain,  consisting  principally  of  woollens 
and  cotton.  The  value  of  articles  paying  specific  duties,  from 
Great  Britain  and  her  dependencies,  during  the  same  period, 
(calculating  their  value  at  the  place  of  importation)  was 
11,470,^86.80  dollars,  making  the  whole  amount  no  less 
than  82,871,185.80  dollars  from  Great  Britain  and  the  coun 
tries  in  her  possession. 

During  the  six  years  from  1802-3  to  1807-8  inclusive,  the 
United  Stales  exported  in  bullion  to  India,  only  1,742,682/. 
sterling,  less  than  had  been  exported  during  the  same  term,  by 
the  British  East  India  Company,  the  officers  of  the  Company's 
ships,  and  by  the  British  private  trade:  the  amount  which  we 
exported,  was  more  than  two-thirds  of  that  exported  from 
Great  Britain. 

It  appears  that  the  United  States,  during  the  six  years  from 
1802  to  1808,  exported  to  the  British  East  Indies,  in  mer 
chandise,  an  aggregate  of  2,589,589  dollars;  or  annually, 
431,598  dollars.  The  treasure  (specie)  exported  in  the 
same  term,  in  the  aggregate,  amounted  to  17,626,275  dollars, 
or  2,937,712  dollars  per  annum.  The  importations  into  those 
settlements,  consisting  of  money  and  merchandise,  from  the 
United  States,  amounted  to  3,369,310  dollars  per  annum. 
During  the  six  years  aforesaid,  there  was  exported,  from  the 
British  East  Indies,  to  the  United  States,  merchandise, 
amounting  to  18,633,426  dollars,  or  annually  to  3,105,571 
dollars.  The  treasure  exported  as  aforesaid,  amounted  in  the 
aggregate  to  69,500  dollars,  or  annually  to  1  1,583  dollars; 
leaving  an  annual  balance  in  favour  of  India,  of  2,662,390 
dollars. 

During  the  years  1804,  1805,  and  1806,  the  United  States 

supplied  the  British  West  India  Islands  with  more  than  nine 

tenths  of  their  flour,  meal  and  bread,  about  two-thirds  of  their 

.  Indian  corn,  oats,  peas  and  beans,  about  one-half  of  their  beef 


166  COMMERCIAL   OBLIGATIONS 

P*T?T  i.  and  pork,  more  than  one-half  of  their  dried  fish,  and  nearly 

V^-N^S*/  the  whole  of  their  live  stock  and  lumber. 

The  average  quantity  of  staves  and  heading,  sent  to  the 
British  West  Indies,  in  the  years  1805,  1806,  1807,  was 
17,614,000,  being  nearly  one-half  of  the  quantity  exported 
during  these  years.  The  quantity  of  boards  and  plank,  for 
the  same  years,  on  an  average  was  40,000,000.  In  1803, 
260,555,  and  in  1807,  251,706  barrels  of  flour  were  export 
ed  to  these  islands. 

The  value  of  flour,  bread,  and  biscuit  exported  to  the  Bri 
tish  West  Indies,  on  an  average  of  the  years  1802,  1803, 
1804,  was  about  2,000,000  dollars;  of  lumber  of  all  kinds 
about  1,000,000;  of  beef,  pork,  bacon,  and  lard,  about 
'  800,000  dollars;  and  of  Indian  corn,  rye,  and  Indian  meal, 
about  600,000.  The  quantity  of  rum  imported,  during  the 
same  period,  was  about  4,000,000  gallons  annually,  and  was 
valued  at  about  2;500,000  dollars.  The  quantity  imported, 
in  the  years  1805,  1806,  and  1807,  was  about  4,614,000 
gallons  annually. 

The  average  amount  of  duties  upon  merchandise,  annually 
imported  into  the  United  States  from  the  British  West  India 
islands  and  North  American  colonial  possessions,  from  1802 
to  1816,  excluding  the  period  from  the  commencement  of  the 
restrictive  system  to  the  termination  of  the  late  war,  exceeds 
2,000,000  dollars.     The  value  of  the  merchandise  upon  which 
these  duties  accrued   is  supposed  to  be  equal  to  7,000,000 
dollars  per  annum.     The  average  annual  amount  of  exports 
to  the  same  places,  principally  of  domestic  production,  up  to 
1817,  excluding  the  time  of  the  operation  of  the  restrictive 
system,   and    the  continuance  of  the    war,    have   exceeded 
6,500,000  dollars.     In  1815,  the    amount/ of  the  duties  on 
merchandise   imported  in  American  vessels  from  the  British 
West  India  Islands  and  North  American  colonial  possessions, 
was,  to  the  amount  of  duties  imported  in  British  vessels,  as  one 
to  four;  in  1816,  as  one  to  five  and  a  half,  or  two  to  eleven. 
Taking  the  ratio  of  1816,  as  the  basis  of  calculation,  and  it  is 
believed  to  afford  the  safest  and  most  solid, — as  past  experi 
ence  shows  a  constant  diminution  of  the  amount  of  duties  on 
goods  imported  in  vessels  of  the  United  States — it  is  eslimat- 
ed,  supposing  the  same  proportion  exists  in  the   exports,  that 
American  vessels  are  used  on  the  transportation  annually  of 
2,177,924  dollars  worth  of  merchandise,  and  British  vessels, 
of  11,322,076   dollars  worth  of  the   most  bulky  articles   of 
commerce,  one-half  of  which  are  of  the  growth,  production,  or 


OF    GREAT    BRITAIN.  167 

manufacture  of  the  United  States.     This  inequality  in  the  ad-  SECT.  v. 
vantages  of  this  commerce,  to  the  navigating  interest  of 
country,  arises  from  the  rigorous  enforcement  of  the  colonial 
system  of  Great  Britain,  as  to  the  United  States,  while  it  is 
relaxed  to  all  nations  who  are  friendly  to  the  British  empire 
and  her  colonial  possessions. 


168 


SECTION  VI. 


OF  THE  RELATIVE  DISPOSITIONS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND 
AMERICA,  FROM  THE  PEACE  OF  1763. 

PART  I.       1-  THE  oppression  and  losses  which  the  colonies  had  en- 
v^-v-^/  dured  ;  the  shackles  imposed  upon  them  ;  the  destitution  to 
which  they  had  been  so  long  consigned  ;  the  parsimony  and 
unskilfulness  with  which  aid  was  finally  administered  by  the 
mother  country  ;  the  faint  praise  or  the  bitter  sarcasm  which 
attended  their  noblest  exertions  ;  the  despicable  character  and 
habitual  malversation  of  their  governors;*  the  immeasurable 
evils  which  they  could  tracf  to  the  indifference,  incapacity,  or 
corruption  of  British   ministers  ;  the  general  complexion   of 
the  domestic  government  of  Great  Britain,  so  livid  in  the 
contrast  with  their  own,  and  so  ghastly  in  the  pictures  of  her 
party  writers  ;  all,  were  insufficient  to  stifle  their  affections, 
or  shake  their  allegiance  j  /  In  the  season  of  their  severest  dis 
tress  from  the  incursions  of  the  Indian  and  Canadian ;  at  the 
height  of  their  dissatisfaction  with  the  restraining  and  dis 
franchising  system  of  the  mother  country;  they  did  not  turn 
their  eyes  to  France,  who  could  have  arrested  the  steps  of 
their  savage  invaders,  and  who  would  gladly  have  made  any 
compromise,  or  concession  of  privileges,  to  attach  them  to  her 
empire.     Franklin  boasted  with  truth  in  1768,  "  Scotland 
has  had  its  rebellion;   Ireland  has  had  its  rebellion;  England 
its  plots  against  the  reigning  family;  but  America  is  free  from 
this  reproach."     What  is  related  of  the  Greek  colonies,  could 
be  more  emphatically  said  of  those  of  Great  Britain — that 
they  remembered  the  land  of  their  fathers  with  filial  respect 
and  affection;  that  they  retained  an   invincible  predilection 
for  its  laws  and  customs,  for  its  religion  and  language;  that 
they  followed  devotedly  its  fortunes,  and  exulted  in  its  glory, 
The  peace  of  1763  seemed  to  banish  every  chilling  recollec 
tion;  to  heighten  their  complacency  in  the  connexion  witl, 

*  See  Note  K. 


DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THE,  &C.  169 

Great  Britain  and  their  admiration  of  the  English  constitution.  SE^T.vi. 
They  fondly  thought  the  true  and  highest  panegyric  and  trh 
umph  of  the  American,  to  be  comprised  in  the  verses  of  the 
Poet, 

And  English  merit  his,  where  meet  combin'd 
"Whate'er  high  fancy,  sound  judicious  thought, 
An  ample  generous  heart,  undrooping  soul, 
And  firm,  tenacious  valour  can  bestow.* 

Testimony  of  a  convincing  nature  superabounds  with  re 
spect  to  these  dispositions.  Out  of  the  mass,  I  will  select 
that  of  the  two  men  who,  by  their  opportunities  of  kaow- 
ledge,  and  soundness  of  judgment,  were  entitled,  perhaps,  to 
most  weight  in  the  question;  Governor  Pownall  and  Dr.  Frank 
lin.  The  first  had  been  long  in  some  of  the  highest  offices 
which  the  crown  could  confer  in  America — governor  and 
cornmander-in-chief  of  Massachusetts  Bay — governor  of 
South  Carolina — lieutenant-governor  of  New  Jersey,  &c.:the 
second  gave  the  evidence  which  I  shall  quote  from  him,  in 
1785,  when  he  could  have  no  interest  in  making  a  false  or 
exaggerated  statement. 

UI  profess,"  said  Pownall  in  1765,  u  an  affection  for 
the  colonies,  because  having  lived  amongst  their  people  in 
a  private,  as  well  as  in  a  public  character,  I  know  them — 
I  know  that  in  their  private  social  relations,  there  is  not  a 
more  friendly,  and  in  their  political  one,  a  more  zealously 
loyal  people,  in  all  his  majesty's  dominions.  When  fairly 
and  openly  dealt  with,  there  is  not  a  people  who  has  a  truer 
sense  of  the  necessary  powers  of  government.  They  would 
sacrifice  their  dearest  interests  for  the  honour  and  prosperity 
of  their  mother  country.  I  have  a  right  to  say  this,  because 
experience  has  given  me  a  practical  knowledge,  and  this  im 
pression,  of  them. "f 

"  The  duty  of  a  colony  is,  affection  for  the  mother  country: 
here  I  may  affirm,  that  in  whatever  form  and  temper  this  af 
fection  can  lie  in  the  human  breast,  in  that  form,  by  the  deep 
est  and  most  permanent  impression,  it  ever  did  lie  in  the  breast 
of  the  American  people.  They  have  no  other  idea  of  this 
country  than  as  their  home;  they  have  no  other  word  by  which 
to  express  it,  and  till  of  late,  it  has  constantly  been  expressed 
by  the  name  of  home.  That  powerful  affection,  the  love  of 
our  native  country,  which  operates  in  every  breast,  operates 

*  Thompson. 

•j-  The  Administration  of  the  Colonies — Dedication  to  George  Gren- 
ville. 

VOL.  I.— Y 


170  DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THE 

PART  I.  in  this  people  towards  England,  which  they  consider  as  their 
— **v-^i^  native  country:  nor  is  this  a  mere  passive  impression,  a  mere 
opinion  in  speculation — it  has  been  wrought  up  in  them  to  a 
vigilant  and  active  zeal  for  the  service  of  this  country."* 

"  The  true  loyalists,"  said  Franklin,  "  were  the  people  of 
America  against  whom  the  royalists  of  England  acted.  No 
people  were  ever  known  more  truly  loyal,  and  universally  so, 
to  their  sovereigns:  the  protestant  succession  in  the  House  of 
Hanover  was  their  idol.  Not  a  Jacobite  was  to  be  found  from 
one  end  of  the  colonies  to  the  other.  They  were  affectionate 
to  the  people  of  England,  zealous  and  forward  to  assist  in  her 
wars,  by  voluntary  contributions  of  men  and  money,  even  be 
yond  their  proportion." 

In  my  first  and  second  sections,  I  have  quoted  the  language 
of  several  of  the  British  politicians,  imputing  to  the  colonies, 
even  in  their  infancy,  the  design  of  acquiring  independence. 
As  it  was  my  purpose  there,  merely  to  set  the  apprehensions  of 
the  mother  country,  and  the  energetic  character  of  our  Ameri 
can  forefathers,  in  a  more  striking  relief,  I  did  not  formally  deny 
the  truth  of  the  charge;  and  it  appeared  to  me  that  if  it  were 
admitted  to  be  true,  the  circumstances  under  which  the  set 
tlers  repaired  to  this  continent,  and  consolidated  their  fortunes, 
would  furnish  them  with  an  obvious  and  a  complete  justifica 
tion.  But  it  is  far  from  being  well-founded;  and  some  obser 
vations  on  the  subject,  in  this  place,  may  not  be  deemed  su 
perfluous.  The  excessive  jealousy  of  power,  and  the  conscious 
ness  of  tyrannical  rule,  raised  the  suspicion  in  the  administra 
tion  of  the  Stuarts  and  of  the  Roundheads;  the  selfish  and  do 
mineering  spirit  of  the  nation  at  large  rendered  her  susceptible, 
at  every  moment,  of  lively  alarm  for  her  monopoly  and  sove 
reignty.  Government  and  people  were,  from  these  causes,  in 
the  language  of  Mr.  Burke,  "too  acute;  perpetually  full  of 
distrusts,  conjectures  and  divinations,  formed  in  defiance  of 
facts  and  experience."  Whenever  a  natural  or  chartered 
right,  a  local  privilege  and  immunity,  was  pleaded  against 
the  encroachments  of  their  arrogant  will  or  oppressive  acts, 
they  at  once  fancied  and  proclaimed,  that  their  whole  autho 
rity  was  denied,  and  that  the  litigant  provinces  either  medi 
tated,  or  had  committed  rebellion.  They  could  not  perceive 
that  the  very  assertion  of  a  privilege  implied  an  acknow 
ledgment  of  their  supremacy;  that  the  eagerness  of  the  co 
lonists  to  obtain  charters  from  the  crown,  and  their  anxiety 
to  preserve  unimpaired  those  which  they^obtained, — their 

*  Debate  on  Disturbances  in  America,  1770* 


PEACE  OF  1763.  171 

claims  to  the  liberties  of  Englishmen  as  defined  and  pledged  SECT.  VI. 
by  the  British  constitution;  their  perpetual  appeals  to  the 
authority  of  Parliament;  amounted  to  a  constant  renovation  of 
fealty,  and  indicated  any  other  drift  than  that  of  separation. 
When,  after  the  peace  of  1763,  the  scheme  of  American  tax 
ation  and  servitude  was  matured,  and  the  determination  fixed 
to  persist  in  it  at  all  hazards,  its  immediate  authors  and  abet 
tors,  in  order  to  render  it  more  acceptable  to  the  nation, 
exerted  themselves  particularly,  to  spread  the  impression,  that 
New  England  had  constantly  aimed  at  independence;  that 
"  the  Americans  had  been  obstinate,  undutiful  and  ungovern 
able  from  the  very  beginning."  This  was  the  text  taken  by 
the  orators  in  Parliament,  and  the  writers  out  of  doors,  on  the 
ministerial  side,  with  a  view  to  the  conclusion,  that  all  con 
cession  or  gentleness  to  the  intractable  provincials  would  be 
futile;  that  "  they  never  could  be  brought  to  their  duty  and 
the  true  subordinate  relation,  till  reduced  to  an  unconditional, 
effectual  submission."* 

To  convict  New  England  of  treasonable  dispositions  in  all 
stages  of  her  existence,  is,  palpably,  the  main  object  of  Chal 
mers,  in  his  Annals;  and  it  would  seem,  that  he,  or  those  in 
whose  service  he  writes,  did  not  deem  it  advisable  to  relin 
quish  the  argument,  as  late  as  the  year  1814. /'in  the  preface 
to  a  work  published  under  his  name  in  that  year,  and  entitled 
"  Opinions  of  Eminent  Lawyers,  on  various  points  of  English 
Jurisprudence,  chiefly  concerning  the  Colonies,  &c."  I  find 
the  "following  passage:  "  None  of  the  statesmen  of  1766  or 
1768,  nor  those  of  the  preceding  nor  subsequent  times,  had 
any  suspicion  that  there  lay  among  the  documents,  in  the 
Board  of  Trade  and  Patent  Office,  the  most  satisfactory 
proofs  from  the  epoch  of  the  Revolution  in  1 668,  throughout 
every  reign,  and  during  every  administration,  of  the  settled 
purpose  of  the  revolted  colonies,  to  acquire  direct  independence: 
the  design  had  long  been  entertained  of  acquiring  positive  so 
vereignty."/ 

We  have  seen  what  these  proofs  are,  in  the  extracts  which 
I  have  made  from  his  Annals.  They  amount  to  no  more  than 
what  was  extant  in  the  public  history  of  the  colonies;  and 
may  be  resolved  into  a  determined  assertion,  on  their  part,  of 
fundamental  liberties,  and  into  acts  of  sheer  necessity.  In 
illustrating  their  political  intrepidity,  I  have  cited  many  in 
stances  of  an  inflexible  tenacity  as  to  natural  and  chartered 
rights,  but  none  of  a  rebellious  or  seditious  temper.  Evidence 

*  Earl  Talbot,  House  of  Lords, 


172  DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THE 

PART  I.  is  not  wanting  that  they  would  never  have  submitted  to  the 
v.^-v-^'  deprivation  of  their  privileges;  but  none  exists  even  of  a  wish 
for  independence,  while  those  privileges  could  be  preserved. 
If  we  fix  our  attention,  for  a  moment,  on  the  situation  of  the 
first  settlers,  particularly  the  northern,  we  shall  perceive  that, 
to  exist  at  all  in  order  and  safety;  to  constitute  a  regular  and 
stable  common  wealth;  it  was  indispensable  for  them  to 
transcend  the  letter  of  the  royal  patents.  They  had  no  alter 
native  in  the  first  instance,  but  to  erect  judicatories,  and  esta 
blish  representative  assemblies,  in  reference  to  their  domestic 
weal;  and,  when  no  hope  of  protection  from  abroad  could  be 
indulged,  to  confederate  for  external  defence. 

We  may  wonder  that  Dr.  Robertson,  acknowledging  the 
dereliction  of  the  New  England  colonies  during  the  civil  com 
motions  in  the  mother  country,  and  the  extremity  of  their  peril 
from  the  plots  of  the  Indians,  should  yet  censoriously  re 
present  their  league  of  164.^, — the  only  means  of  their  preser 
vation, — as  u  a  transaction  in  which  they  seem  to  have  con 
sidered  themselves  as  independent  societies,  possessing  all  the 
rights  of  sovereignty,  and  free  from  the  controul  of  any  supe 
rior  power."*  Thrown  as  they  were  into  a  wilderness,  rather 
as  reprobates  to  be  sacrificed,  than  as  subjects  to.be  defended; 
committed  to  the  exigencies  and  chances  <of  a  distant  settle 
ment,  and  pressed  with  the  highest  degree  of  ganger  at  the 
season  when  all  was  confusion  and  dissension  in  the  mother 
country;  they  must  have  fallen  into  anarchy  themselves,  had 
they  waited  to  consult  her  rulers  respecting  their  domestic 
arrangements;  or  have  perished  by  the  tomahawk  of  the  savage, 
had  they  looked  to  her  for  a  system  of  defence,  and  delayed  to 
combine  their  strength  and  sagacity,  so  as  to  assure  a  common 
exertion,  whenever  it  might  be  wanted,  whether  for  military  or 
civil  objects.  The  institutions  and  prosperity  that  arose  out  of 
this  compulsory  exercise  of  discretion,  under  such  untoward 
circumstances,  excite  in  me  anew,  the  surprise  and  admiration 
which  I  have  more  than  once  expressed. 

The  measure  of  coining  money,  taken  by  Massachusetts,  dur 
ing  the  civil  wars,  gave  a  handle  to  her  enernieslin  England, 
which  was  used  eagerly,  from  the  period  of  the  Restoration,  to 
the  apparition  militant  of  Chalmers  and  his  numerous  associates 
in  the  same  crusade.  That  writer  lays,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  greatest  stress  upon  its  sufficiency,  as  evidence  of  the 
early  disloyalty  of  New  England;  and  Dr.  Robertson,  found  it 
"  a  usurpation;"  an  unambiguous  indication  of"  the' aspiring 

*  Vol.  iv.  History  of  America. 


PEACE  OF  1763.  173 

spirit  prevalent  among  the  people  of  Massachusetts."*    I  can-  SECT.  VI. 
not  retrain  from  offering,  in  answer  to  these  invidious  sugges-  s^-v^-' 
tions,  a  quotation  from  a  paper  on  the  subject  published  in 
the  English  Monthly  Magazine  for  January,  1799.     It  com 
prises  an  anecdote  which  gives  the  proper  air  to  the  orthodox 
historian's  umbrage  u  at  the  tree  stampt  upon  the  Boston  coin 
as  an  apt  symbol  of  its  progressive  vigour." 

"  It  seems  to  be  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Robertson,  that  the 
people  of  Massachusetts  assumed  this  4  peculiar  prerogative  of 
sovereignty'  in  defiance  of,  or  at  least,  in  opposition  to,  the 
Foyal  authority.  But  it  ought  to  be  particularly  noticed,  that 
the  first  coinage  was  made  in  the  year  1652.  Instead,  there 
fore,  of  ascribing  this  measure  to  the  '  aspiring  spirit  of  the 
people  of  Massachusetts,'  the  Doctor  might  just  as  well  have 
said,  that  the  colonists  being  nearly  deserted,  at  this  time,  by 
the  rulers  at  home,  on  account  of  the  civil  wars,  and  the  vari 
ous  forms  of  government  which  afterwards  followed,  were 
obliged  to  coin  money  from  absolute  necessity.  The  follow 
ing  extract  from  the  Memoirs  of  the  late  truly  patriotic  Tho 
mas  Hollis,  will  prove  this  to  have  been  the  principal,  if  not 
the  only  cause,  and  consequently  point  out  the  mistake  which 
Dr.  Robertson  has  inadvertently  fallen  into." 

"  Sir  Thomas  Temple,  brother  to  Sir  William  Temple,  re 
sided  several  years  in  New  England  during  the  interregnum. 
After  the  Restoration,  when  he  returned  to  England,  the  king 
sent  for  him,  and  discoursed  with  him  on  the  state  of  affairs  in 
the  Massachusetts,  and  discovered  great  warmth  against  that 
colony.  Among  other  things,  he  said  they  had  invaded  his 
prerogative  by  coining  money.  Sir  Thomas,  who  was  a  real 
friend  to  the  colony,  told  his  majesty,  that  the  colonists  had  but 
little  acquaintance  with  law,  and  that  they  thought  it  no 
crime  to  make  money  for  their  own  use.  In  the  course  of  the 
conversation,  Sir  Thomas  took  some  of  the  money  out  of  his 
pocket,  and  presented  it  to  the  king.  On  one  side  of  the  coin 
was  a  pine  tree,  of  that  kind  which  is  thick  and  bushy  at  the 
top.  Charles  asked  what  tree  that  was?  Sir  Thomas  inform 
ed  him  it  was  the  royal  oak,  which  preserved  his  majesty's 
life/  This  account  of  the  matter  brought  the  king  into  good 
humour,  and  disposed  him  to  hear  what  Sir  Thomas  had  to 
say  in  their  favour,  calling  them  a  l  parcel  of  honest  dogs.' " 

"  The  jocular  turn  which  Sir  Thomas  gave  to  the  story, 
was  evidently  calculated  to  amuse  the  monarch  in  his  own 

*  Vol.  iv.  History  of  America. 


174  DISPOSITIONS  PROM  THE 

PART  I.  way,  and  had  the  desired  effect,  in  disposing  him  to  hear  with 
^^"v~^-/  good  humour,  that  just  defence  of  the  colonies  which  Sir  Tho 
mas  was  so  well  qualified  to  make.    We  find  he  pleaded,  thai; 
the  colonists  thought  it  no  crime  to  make  money  for  their  owr 
use;  at  a  time  too,  when  the  confusions  in  the  mother  coun 
try  prevented  them  from  receiving  those  occasional  supplies  of 
coin,  which  were  absolutely  necessary  for  common  circula 
tion.     Such  an  uncommon   exigency  required  an  uncommon 
expedient;  and  this  will  account  for  the  proceedings  of  the 
people  of  Massachusetts  in  a  more  rational  manner,  than  Dr 
Robertson  has  done." 

By  the  act  of  14  Geo.  II.  c.  37,  the  Americans  were^re 
strained  from  creating  banks;  by  that  of  24  Geo.  II.  c.*53, 
the  governors  and  assemblies  of  the  respective  American  pro 
vinces  were  prohibited  from  making  "  any  act,  order,  resolu 
tion,  or  vote,  whereby  paper  bills  or  bills  of  credit,  shall  b( 
created  or  issued,  under  any  pretence  whatever;  or  from  pro 
tracting  or  postponing  the  times  limited,  or  the  provisions 
made,  for  calling  in  such  as  were  then  actually  issued  apd  sub 
sisting."  After  the  peace  of  1763,  most  of  the  colonies  were 
reduced,  in  consequence  of  the  enforcement  of  these  and  other 
regulations  of  a  like  purport,  to  a  situation  worse  than  that  of 
Massachusetts  in  1672.  It  is  thus  stated  by  Macpherson  in 
his  Annals.  "  Their  foreign  trade  was  almost  entirely  ruined 
by  the  rigorous  execution  of  the  new  orders  against  smuggling, 
and  the  collection  of  the  duties  in  hard  silver,  which  soon 
drained  the  country  of  anv  little  real  money  circulating  in  it. 
And,  as  if  government  had  intended  to  prevent  the  colonists 
from  having  even  the  shadow  of  money,  another  act  was  pass 
ed,  in  a  few  days  after  that  for  the  new  duties,  declaring  that 
no  paper  bills,  to  be  thenceforth  issued,  should  be  made  a  legal 
tender  in  payment,  and  enjoining  those  in  circulation  to  be 
sunk  (that  is,  paid  off  in  hard  money)  at  the  limited  time." 

Had  the  colonies — some  of  which  were  driven  to  the  ex 
pedient  of  barter, — possessed  bullion,  and  proceeded  to  coin 
it,  on  this  emergency,  it  would  not  have  been  difficult  for  any 
liberal  enquirer  to  decide  whether  the  proceeding  was  to  be 
interpreted  into  "  an  indication  of  an  aspiring  spirit,"  or  into  a 
mere  and  natural  effort  for  temporary  relief  from  an  oppressive 
privation.  I  find  it  the  more  unpardonable  in  Dr.  Robert 
son  to  have  mistaken  or  misrepresented  the  views  of  the  colo 
nists,  since  he  has  himself  furnished  an  explanation  of  much 
of  their  apparent  indocility  in  the  following  paragraph:  "  In 
writing  the  history  of  the  English  settlements  in  America,  it  is 


PEACE  OF  1763.  175 

necessary  to  trace  the  progress  of  the  restraining  laws  with  SECT.  VI. 
accuracy,  as  in  every  subsequent  transaction,  we  may  observe  v^-v-^' 
a  perpetual  exertion  on  the  part  of  the  mother  country,  to  en- 
force  and  extend  them;  and  on  the  part  of  the  colonies,  endea 
vours  no  less  unremitting  to  elude  or  to  obstruct  their  opera 
tion." 

The  inveterate  design  of  the  colonies  to  become  indepen 
dent,  continued  to  be  a  leading  topic  in  the  British  parliament, 
notwithstanding  the  evidence  furnished  in  their  conduct  on  the 
repeal  of  the  stamp  act  in  1766.*  We  have  a  specimen  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  charge  was  supported,  in  the  argu 
ment  of  Sir  Richard  Sutton,  who  £aid  in  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  on  the  22d  April,  1774,  4  If  you  ask  an  American — 
who  is  his  master,  he  will  tell  you  he  has  none;  nor  any  go 
vernor  but  Jesus  Christ!"  Lord  Mansfield  was  quite  sure  that 
the  Americans  had  meditated  a  state  of  independency,  par 
ticularly  since  the  peace  of  Paris,  and  upon  this  ground 
chiefly,  he  rested  his  celebrated  declaration  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  "  if  we  do  not  kill  the  Americans,  the  Americans  will 
kill  us."  In  the  quotation  which  I  have  made  from  one  of 
his  speeches  on  the  same  point,  Davenant  is  brought  forward 
as  having  "  foreseen  that  America  would  endeavour  to  form 
herself  into  a  separate  and  independent  state,  whenever  she 
found  herself  of  sufficient  strength  to  contend  with  the  mother 
country."  The  learned  judge  did  not,  however,  deal  fairly 
with  Davenant./  This  great  political  teacher — by  far  the 
ablest  of  his  time,  and  whose  treatises,  according  to  his  edi 
tor,  Sir  Cbar]es_  Whit  worth,  "  may  be  properly  called  the 
foundaiion'of  the  political  establishment  of  England" — had 
delivered,  in  his  Discourse  on  the  Plantation  Trade,  opinions 
respecting  the  colonies,  "which  Lord  Mansfield  would  have 
been  very  unwilling  to  produce  in  their  real  shape.  The  fol 
lowing,  written  in  1698,  are  of  this  number,  and  will  compen 
sate  for  the  space  they  may  occupy  in  these  pages,  by  their  his 
torical  value. 

"  Generally  speaking  our  colonies  while  they  have  English 
blood  in  their  veins,  and  have  relations  in  England,  and  while 


*  ««  When  the  news  of  the  repeal  of  the  stamp  act  reached  America," 
says  Macpherson,  "  it  was,  notwithstanding-  the  disagreeable  nature  of 
the  concomitant  act,  received  with  universal  demonstrations  of  joy. 
Subscriptions  were  made  for  erecting4  statues  to  Mr.  Pitt,  who  had  ex 
erted  himself  for  the  repeal;  and  resolutions  were  made  to  prepare  new 
dresses  made  of  British  manufactures  for  celebrating  the  4th  of  June,  the 
birth  flay  of  their-  most  gracious  sovereign,  and  to  give  jjieir  homespun 
clothes  to  the  poor,"  &c. 


1*76  DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THE 

PART  i.  they  can  get  by  trading  with  us,  the  stronger  and  greater  they 
grow,  the  more  this  crown  and  kingdom  will  get  by  them;  ant 
nothing  but  such  an  arbitrary  power  as  shall  make  them  despe 
rate,  can  bring  them  to  rebel." 

"  While  we  keep  a  strict  eye  upon  their  conduct,  ant 
chiefly  watch  their  growth  in  shipping  of  strength  and  for  war, 
whatever  other  increase  they  make,  either  in  wealth  or  ir 
number  of  inhabitants,  cannot  be  turned  against  us,  and  car 
never  be  detrimental  to  this  nation  While  we  are  strong  ant 
they  weak  at  sea,  they  may  be  compelled  to  obey  the  laws  of 
England,  and  not  to  trade  directly  and  upon  their  own  acrounl. 
with  other  countries.  I  do  not  think  the  greatness  these  colo 
nies  may  arrive  at  in  a  natural  course,  and  in  the  progress  of 
time  can  be  dangerous  to  England.  To  build  ships  in  the  way 
of  trade  or  for  their  own  defence,  can  administer  no  true  cause 
of  jealousy." 

"  It  is  true,  if  in  New  England,  or  in  other  parts  there, 
they  should  pretend  to  set  up  manufactures,  and  to  clothe  as 
well  as  feed  their  neighbours,  their  nearness  and  low  price 
would  give  them  such  advantages  over  this  nation,  as  might 
prove  of  pernicious  consequence;  but  this  fear  seems  very  re 
mote,  because  new  inhabitants,  especially  in  a  large  extent  ol 
country,  find  their  account  better  in  rearing  cattle,  tilling  the 
earth,  clearing  it  of  woods,  making  fences,  and  by  erecting 
necessary  buildings,  than  in  setting  up  of  manufactures,  which 
is  the  last  work  of  a  people  settled  three  or  four  hundred  years, 
growing  numerous  and  wanting  territory." 

"  W7hen  we  contemplate  the  great  increase  and  improve 
ments  which  have  been  made  in  New  England,  Carolina,  and 
Pennsylvania,  we  cannot  but  think  it  injustice  not  to  say,  that 
a  large  share  of  this  general  good  to  those  parts  is  owing  to  the 
education  of  the  planters,  which,  if  not  entirely  virtuous,  has, 
at  least,  a  show  of  virtue." 

"  And  to  the  sobriety  and  temperate  way  of  living,  prac 
tised  by  the  dissenters  retired  to  America,  we  may  justly  at 
tribute  the  increase  they  have  made  there  of  inhabitants, 
which  is  beyond  the  usual  proportion  to  be  any  where  else 
observed." 

"  Had  it  not  been  for  provinces  begun  and  carried  on  by 
people  of  sobriety,  the  English  empire  abroad  would  be  much 
weaker  than  it  is  at  present." 

"  If  ever  any  thing  great  or  good  be  done  for  our  English 
colonies,  industry  must  have  its  due  recompense,  and  that 
cannot  be,  without  encouragement  to  it,  which,  perhaps,  is 
only  to  be  brought  about  by  confirming  their  liberties." 


PEACE  OF  1763.  177 

cc  And  as  great  care  should  be  taken  in  this  respect,  so,  SECT.VI. 
without  doubt,  it  is  advisable,  that  no  little  emulations,  or  pri 
vate  interests  of  neighbour  governors,  nor  that  the  petitions  of 
hungry  courtiers  at  home,  should  prevail  to  discourage  those 
particular  colonies,  who  in  a  few  years  have  raised  themselves 
by  their  own  charge,  prudence,  and  industry,  to  the  wealth 
and  greatness  they  are  now  arrived  at,  without  expense  to  the 
crown:  Upon  which  account,  any  innovations  or  breach  of 
their  original  charters  (besides  that  it  seems  a  breach  of  the 
public  faith)  may,  peradventure,  not  tend  to  the  king's  pro 
fit." 

"  We  shall  not  pretend  to  determine  whether  the  people  in 
the  Plantations  have  a  right  to  all  the  privileges  of  English 
subjects;  'but  the  contrary  notion  is,  perhaps,  too  much  en 
tertained  and  practised  in  places  which  happen  not  to  be  dis 
tant  from  St.  Stephen's  Chapel.  Upon  which  account  it  will, 
peradventure,  be  a  great  security  and  encouragement  to  these 
industrious  people,  if  a  declaratory  law  were  made,  that 
Englishmen  have  right  to  all  the  laws  of  England,  while  they 
remain  in  countries  subject  to  the  dominion  of  this  king 
dom." 

2.  On  the  side  of  the  British  government,  the  bias  and  im 
pressions  taken  after  the  epoch  of  1763,  were  altogether,  and 
by  an  almost  incredible  perversion  of  heart  and  of  judgment, 
the  reverse  of  those  which  I  have  ascribed  to  the  colonies.  It 
was  to  be  expected  that  the  exertions  and  sufferings  of  the 
latter  during  the  war,  and  the  value  of  the  results  to  Great 
Britain,  would  have  warmed  the  feelings,  and  relaxed  the 
gripe,  of  any  ministry  or  parliament,  however  greedy  of  reve 
nue,  or  tenacious  of  dominion.  The  British  nation  had  ac 
quired,  by  the  war,  lands  more  than  equal  in  value,  to  the 
amount  of  all  the  expense  she  had  incurred  in  America  from 
its  tirst  settlement;  and  she  saw  opened  to  her  new  avenues 
of  a  most  beneficial  commerce.  No  share  was  sought  or  reap 
ed  by  the  colonies,  in  the  millions  of  acres  which  they  had 
helped  to  conquer;  they  seemed  to  desire  no  more  than  the 
loosening  of  their  fetters  so  far,  as  to  enable  them  to  recover 
from  their  wounds. 

But,  to  allow  them  an  interval  of  ease  entered  not  into  the 
imagination  or  heart  of  their  task-masters.  The  Lords  of  the 
Admiralty  issued  forthwith,  instructions  to  the  commanders  on 
the  American  station,  to  enforce  all  those  acts  of  trade  to 
which  I  have  adverted,  in  the  most  rigid  manner.  "  The 
ministry"  says  Gordon,  "  obliged  all  sea-officers  stationed  on 
VOL.  I.— Z 


178  DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THE 

PART  I.  the  American  coasts,  to  act  in  the  capacity  of  the  meanest  re- 
v^v^w/  venue  officers,  making  them  submit  to  the  usual  custom-house 
oaths  and  regulations  for  that  purpose.  This  proved  a  great 
grievance  to  the  American  merchants  and  traders.  Many  il 
legal  seizures  were  made;  no  redress  could  be  had  but  from 
Britain.  Besides,  the  American  trade  with  (he  Spaniards,  by 
which  the  British  manufactures  were  vended  in  return,  for 
gold  and  silver  in  coin  or  bullion,  cochineal,  &c.  as  occasion 
served,  was  almost  instantly  destroyed  by  the  armed  ships  un 
der  the  new  regulations."*  Immediately  after  the  ratifica 
tion  of  the  definitive  treaty,  the  intentions  of  the  government 
to  quarter  ten  thousand  troops  in  America,  and  to  support 
them  at  the  expense  of  die  colonies,  were  authentically  an 
nounced.  Mr.  Givnville  avowed  it,  in  the  House'of  Com 
mons,  to  be  his  purpose,  to  raise  the  money  for  the  support  of 
those  troops,  by  a  duty  on  the  foreign  sugar  and  molasses  im 
ported  into  America,  and  by  stamps  on  all  papers  legal  and 
mercantile.  In  1764,  Parliament  passed  an  act  imposing  du 
ties  on  the  two  first  articles;  and  to  secure  its  execution,  the 
penalties  for  the  breach  of  it,  or  of  any  other  act  relating  to 
the  trade  and  revenues  of  the  British  colonies,  were  made  re 
coverable  in  any  court  of  admiralty  in  the  colony  where  the  of 
fence  should  be  committed,  or — at  the  election  of  the  informer 
or  prosecutor — in  any  court  of  vice-admiralty,  which  might  be 
appointed  by  the  crown  in  any  part  of  Americ'a.  Thus  the 
trial  by  jury  might  be  withheld,  and  the  defendant  called  to 
support  his  claim  to  property  seized,  at  distances  which 
would  make  the  expense  of  the  pursuit  more  than  the  value  ot 
the  prize.  Moreover,  the  act  provided  that  he  could  recover 
neither  costs  nor  damages,  if  the  judge  certified  that  there  was 
probable  cause  of  seizure. 

I  do  not  know  of  any  moral  phenomenon  which  history 
offers,  more  hateful — than  that  those  who  were  entrusted  in 
Great  Britain  with  the  supreme  administration,  should  not  only 
have  proved  utterly  insensible  to  the  services  and  distresses 
of  the  colonies,  but  have  at  once  resolved  to  take  advantage 
of  the  expulsion  of  her  rival  from  the  American  continent,  effect 
ed,  in  great  part,  through  their  vigorous  assistance,  and  of  the 
mighty  increase  and  complete  disengagement  of  the  national 
strength,  produced  by  the  same  generous  co-operation — to 
enforce  in  all  its  rigour  the  whole  digest  of  commercial  sub 
jection;  to  plunge  them  into  what  Mr.  Burke  so  justly  describ 
ed  as  "  a  perfect  uncompensated  slavery,  by  joining  together 

*  Vol.  i.  p.  207. 


PEACE    OF    1763.  179 

the  restraints  of  an  universal  internal  and  external  monopoly,  SECT.  VI. 
with  an  universal  internal  and  external  taxation."  s^^v-^ 

There  seems  to  be  now  but  one  voice  throughout  the 
world,  respecting  the  expedients  employed  to  establish  this 
cumulative  despotism — the  revenue-acts,  stamp-acts,  re 
straining  and  starving  acts,  Boston  port  acts,  acts  for  dis 
franchising  legislatures,  for  quartering  soldiers  in  private 
houses,  dragging  men  to  England  for  trial,  &c.  English 
writers  of  every  party-denomination,  finding  that  the  verdict 
of  Europe  was  given  unanimously  and  irreversibly,  against 
this  headlong  career  of  injustice  and  folly,  have  concurred  in 
passing  upon  it,  themselves,  the  severest  sentence  of  repro 
bation.  They  tell  us  without  hesitation  that  a  scheme  of 
new  modelling  the  colonial  government,  so  as  to  increase  the 
power  and  patronage  of  the  crown,  and  enable  ministers  to 
enrich  their  relations  and  dependents,  was  the  cause  of  the 
war,  and  of  the  loss  of  America.  They  adduce  these  as  the 
prominent  features  of  the  hopeful  scheme  : — 

First,  to  raise  a  revenue  in  America  by  act  of  parliament, 
to  be  applied  to  support  an  army  there;  to  pay  a  large  salary 
to  the  governors,  another  to  the  lieutenant  governors,  salaries 
to  the  judges  of  the  law  and  admiralty;  and  thus  to  render  the 
whole  government,  executive  and  judicial,  entirely  indepen 
dent  of  the  people,  and  wholly  dependent  on  the  minister. 
Second,  to  make  a  new  division  of  the  colonies,  to  reduce  the 
number  of  them  by  making  the  small  ones  more  extensive,  to 
make  them  all  royal  governments,  with  a  peerage  in  each,  &c. 

Mr.  Burke  gave  to  parliament,  in  his  unanswerable  speech 
on  American  taxation,  a  full  account  of  the  dawn  and  progress 
of  the  new  plan  of  colonial  administration.  His  relation  stands 
as  a  monument  of  the  genius  of  that  rule,  under  which  the  co 
lonies,  by  their  own  admirable  energies,  and  a  train  of  provi 
dential  dispensations,  had  grown  to  a  strength,  and  preserved  a 
spirit,  too  firm  to  be  broken  by  its  utmost  pressure,  when  all 
other  barriers  to  its  natural  action  were  removed.  The  fol 
lowing  is  a  part  of  the  testimony  of  Burke: 

"  At  the  period  immediately  on  the  close  of  the  war  of  1756, 
a  scheme  of  government  new  in  many  things  seemed  to  have 
been  adopted.  I  saw,  or  thought  I  saw,  several  symptoms  of 
a  great  change,  whilst  I  sat  in  your  gallery,  a  good  while  be 
fore  I  had  the  honour  of  a  seat  in  this  house.  At  that  period 
the  necessity  was  established  of  keeping  up  no  less  than  twenty 
new  regiments,  with  twenty  colonels  capable  of  seats  in  this 
house.  This  scheme  was  adopted  with  very  general  applause 
from  all  sides,  at  the  very  time  that,  by  your  conquests  in 


180  DISPOSITIONS    FROM    THE 

PART  I.  America,  your  danger  from  foreign  attempts  in  that  part  of  tire 
^^•^^-'  world  was  much  lessened,  or  indeed  rather  quite  over.  Wheis 
this  huge  increase  of  military  establishment  was  resolved  on, 
a  revenue  was  to  be  found  to  support  so  great  a  burthen. 
Country  gentlemen,  the  great  patrons  of  economy,  and  the 
great  resislers  of  a  standing  armed  force,  would  not  have  en 
tered  with  much  alacrity  into  the  vote  for  so  large  and  so  ex 
pensive  an  army,  if  they  had  been  very  sure  that  they  were  to 
continue  to  pay  for  it.  But  hopes  of  another  kind  were  held 
out  to  them;  and,  in  particular,  I  well  remember,  that  Mr. 
Townshend,  in  a  brilliant  harangue  on  this  subject,  did  dazzle 
them,  by  playing  before  their  eyes  the  image  of  a  revenue  to 
be  raised  in  America." 

The  conduct  of  the  colonies  in  resisting  this  scheme  did  not 
want  for  advocates  in  the  parliament;  and  we  may  claim  for 
it  particularly,  the  unqualified  sanction  of  Camden  and  Chat 
ham,  the  most  enlightened  and  conscientious  among  the  Bri 
tish  statesmen  of  that  day.  "  We  have  been,5'  said  the  first, 
"  the  original  aggressors  in  this  business;  if  we  obstinately 
persist,  we  are  fairly  answerable  for  all  the  consequences. 
When  we  contend  that  we  aim  only  to  defend  and  enforce  our 
own  rights,  I  positively  deny  it.  I  contend  that  America  has 
been  driven,  by  cruel  necessity,  to  defend  her  rights  from  the 
united  attacks  of  violence,  oppression,  and  injustice.  I  con 
tend  that  America  has  been  indisputably  aggrieved.  Perhaps, 
as  a  domineering  Englishman,  wishing  to  enjoy  the  ideal  be 
nefit  of  such  a  claim  of  taxation,  1  might  urge  it  with  earnest 
ness,  and  endeavour  to  carry  my  point;  but  if,  on  the  other 
hand,  I  resided  in  America,  that  1  felt,  or  was  to  feel,  the 
effects  of  such  manifest  injustice,  I  certainly  should  resist  the 
attempt  with  that  degree  of  ardour  so  daring  a  violation  oi 
what  should  be  held  dearer  than  life  itself,  ought  to  enkindle 
in  the  breast  of  every  freeman." 

"  Pursuing  the  ideas  of  a  native  American,  or  a  person  re 
siding  in  that  country,  what  must  be  the  sense  they  feel  of  the 
repeated  injuries  that  have  for  a  succession  of  years  past  been 
heaped  on  them?  To  have  their  property,  under  the  idea  ot 
asserting  a  right  to  tax  them,  voted  away  by  one  act  of  parlia 
ment,  and  their  charters,  under  an  idea  of  the  supreme  autho 
rity  of  the  British  legislature,  swept  away  by  another  vote  of 
parliament.  Thus  depriving  them,  or  rather  claiming  a  right 
to  dispose  of  every  shilling  they  are  worth,  without  one  oi 
them  being  represented  by  the  persons  pretending  to  exercise 
this  right;  and  thus  stripping  them  of  their  natural  rights, 
growing  out  of  the  constitution,  confirmed  by  charter,  and 


PEACE  OP  1763.  181 

recognized  by  every  branch  of  the   legislature,  without  exa-  SEC 
mination,  or  even  without  hearing."* 

"  The  Americans,"  said  Chatham,  "  are  a  wise,  industrious, 
and  prudent  people.  They  possess  too  much  good  sense,  and 
too  much  spirit,  ever  to  submit  to  hold  their  properties  on  so 
precarious  and  disgraceful  a  tenure.  They  see  us,  besides, 
immersed  in  luxury,  dissipation,  venality,  and  corruption;  they 
perceive,  that,  even  if  they  were  willing  to  contribute,  to  what 
purposes  their  contributions  would  be  applied;  to  nothing  but 
the  extinction  of  public  and  private  virtue  there,  as  has  already 
been  the  case  here."f 

An  American  finds  not  only  instruction,  but  a  gratification 
such  as  is  commonly  enjoyed,  in  looking  back  upon  a  hideous 
evil  from  which  you  have  lastingly  escaped,  when  he  retraces 
the  portraits  drawn  by  near  observers,  whose  title  to  credit  is 
beyond  dispute,  of  the  cabinets  and  men  to  whom  the  English 
monarch  and  nation  committed  the  liberties  and  fortunes  of  the 
colonies.  Let  us  see  how  they  are  described  by  three  states 
men  of  different  political  views  and  connexions,  and  of  the 
fullest  and  most  intimate  experience  in  the  ministerial  govern 
ment  of  the  kingdom.  In  the  debate  of  the  House  of  Lords 
of  Feb.  1st,  1775,  Lord  Mansfield  said — "  I  have  seen  much 
of  courts,  parliaments  and  cabinets,  and  have  been  a  frequent 
witness  to  the  means  used  to  acquire  popularity,  and  the  base 
and  mean  purposes  to  which  that  popularity  has  been  after 
wards  employed.  I  have  been  in  cabinets  where  the  great 
struggle  has  not  been  to  advance  the  public  interest;  not  by 
coalition  and  mutual  assistance  to  strengthen  the  hands  of 
government;  but  by  cabals,  jealousy  and  mutual  distrust,  to 
thwart  each  others  designs,  and  to  circumvent  each  otherT  in 
order  to  obtain  power  and  pre-eminence." 
f  Lord  Chatham,  in  concluding  the  defence  of  his  plan  of 
Conciliation  at  the  sitting  of  the  Lords  of  the  1st  February, 
1775,  apostrophized  the  ministers  of  the  day  thus: 

"  Yet  when  I  consider  the  whole  case  as  it  lits  before  me, 
I  am  not  much  astonished;  I  am  not  surprised  that  men  who 
hate  liberty  should  detest  those  that  prize  it;  or  that  those  who 
want  virtue  themselves,  should  endeavour  to  persecute  those 
who  possess  it.  Were  I  disposed  to  carry  this  theme  to  die 
extent  that  truth  would  fully  bear  me  out  in,  I  could  demon 
strate  that  the  whole  of  your  political  conduct  has  been  one 
continued  series  of  weakness,  temerity,  despotism,  ignorance, 

*  Debate  in  the  House  of  Lords,  Nov.  15,  1775. 
t  Ibid. 


182 


DISPOSITIONS    FROM   THE 


PART  i.  futility,  negligence,  blundering,  and  the  most  notorious  servili- 
v*^~v-**-^  ty,  incapacity  and  corruption.  On  reconsideration,  I  must 
allow  you  one  merit,  a  strict  attention  to  your  own  interests, 
in  that  view,  you  appear  sound  statesmen  and  able  politicians. 
You  well  know  if  the  present  measure  (of  reconciliation  with 
the  colonies)  should  prevail,  that  you  must  instantly  lose  your 
places.  I  doubt  much  whether  you  will  be  able  to  keep  them 
on  any  terms:  but  sure  I  am,  that  such  are  your  well  known 
characters  and  abilities,  any  plan  of  reconciliation,  however 
moderate,  wise,  and  feasible,  must  fail  in  your  hands.  Such, 
then,  being  your  precarious  situation,  who  can  wonder  that 
you  should  put  a  negative  on  any  measure  which  must  annihi 
late  your  power,  deprive  you  of  your  emoluments,  and  at  once 
reduce  you  to  that  state  of  insignificance,  for  which  God  and 
nature  designed  you." 

Earlier — in  the  debate  respecting  the  disorders  in  America.. 
1770, — Lord  Shelburne  held  this  language  in  the  same  house: 

u  My  lords, — I  scarcely  remember  a  period  in  history,  an 
cient  or  modern,  where  the  ministers  of  a  state,  however  dead  to 
the  feelings  of  justice,  were  so  lost  to  the  sentiments  of  shame, 
that  they  gloried  to  be  detested  by  every  honest  individual  of 
their  country.  This  pinnacle  of  profligacy  was  reserved  for 
the  present  ministers  of  Great  Britain,  who  have  adopted  the 
principle  of  the  Roman  tyrant  as  far  as  they  were  able;  and 
if  our  heads  were  beyond  their  power,  have  at  least  cut  off  all 
our  liberties  with  a  blow." 

3.  As  the  fellowship  of  enterprise,  suffering,  and  object, 
during  the  war  of  1756,  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother 
country,  the  copious  effusion  of  their  blood  in  the  same  mili 
tary  operations,  and  their  joint  triumph,  failed  to  inspire  her 
even  with  the  sympathies  natural  to  the  most  common  alliance, 
the  more  intimate  relations  with  them  into  which  that  war 
brought  her;  the  opportunities  which  it  afforded  for  a  thorough 
observation  of  their  character  and  situation;  had  no  effect  in 
curing  her  profound  ignorance  on  these  points.  It  appears, 
indeed,  the  less  extraordinary,  that  the  metropolitan  councils 
should  have  remained  in  this  state,  when  it  is  noted,  that  most 
of  the  royal  governors  in  America  seemed,  with  all  the  advan 
tages  of  their  situation,  to  have  no  clearer  insight.  Indig 
nation  might  relax  into  mirth,  when  we  read  the  language 
which  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  addressed  to  his  princi 
pals  in  1774.  "  The  colonists  talk  of  fixing  a  plan  of  govern 
ment  of  their  own;  and  it  is  somewhat  surprising,  that  so  many 
in  the  other  provinces  interest  themselves  so  much  in  the  be- 


PEACE    OF    1763.  183 

half  of  Ibis  of  Massachusetts.     I  find  they  have  some  warm  SECT.VI. 
friends  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia;  and  I  learn  by  an  offi-  ^-^^-^ 
cer  who  left  Carolina,  the  latter  end  of  August,  that  the  people 
of  Charleston  are  as  mad  as  they  are  here."* 

If  any  British  statesman  could  be  expected  to  understand 
thoroughly  the  nature  and  condition  of  the  Americans,  it  was 
Chatham;  yet,  he  is  reported  to  have  spoken  in  parliament  in 
1776,  in  this  strain: 

"There  were  not  wanting  some,  when  I  had  the  honour  to 
serve  his  majesty,  to  propose  to  me  to  burn  my  fingers  with 
an  American  stamp-act.  With  the  enemy  at  their  back,  with 
our  bayonets  at  their  breasts,  in  the  day  of  their  distress,  per 
haps  the  Americans  would  have  submitted  to  the  imposition; 
but  it  would  have  been  taking  an  ungenerous  and  unjust  ad 
vantage.  A  great  deal  has  been  said  without  doors,  of  the 
power,  of  the  strength  of  America.  It  is  a  topic  that  ought  to 
be  cautiously  meddled  with.  In  a  good  cause,  on  a  sound 
bottom,  the  force  of  this  country  can  crush  America  to  atoms. 
I  know  the  valour  of  your  troops.  I  know  the  skill  of  your 
officers.  There  is  not  a  company  of  foot  that  Jias  served  in 
America,  out  of  which  you  may  not  pick  a  man  of  sufficient 
knowledge  and  experience,  to  make  a  governor  of  a  colony  there." 

In  their  first  projects  for  subverting  the  liberties  of  Ame 
rica;  in  every  step  which  they  took  as  they  prosecuted  their 
aim;  in  all  that  they  uttered,  the  ministry  betrayed  that  they 
were  entire  strangers  to  her  spirit  and  resources.  Indeed,  the 
almost  universal  ignorance  of  the  British  on  these  points, 
rendered  them  altogether  unfit  to  hold  dominion  over  the 
colonies,  and  constituted,  in  itself,  a  sufficient  reason  why 
the  connexion  should  be  dissolved.  We  may  judge  of  the  de 
lusions,  common  to  rulers  and  people,  by  the  following  speci 
mens  drawn  from  the  parliamentary  debates. 

"  My  Lords,"  said  the  Lord  Chancellor  Northington  to 
the  Upper  House,  in  1766,f  "the  colonies  are  become  too 
big  to  be  governed  by  the  laws  they  at  first  set  out  with. 
They  have  therefore  run  into  confusion,  and  it  will  be  the  po 
licy  of  this  country  to  form  a  plan  of  laws  for  them.  If  they 
withdraw  allegiance,  you  must  withdraw  protection;  and  then 
the  little  state  of  Genoa,  or  the  kingdom,  or  rather  republic  of 
Sweden,  may  soon  overrun  them." 

"  I  have  the  best  reasons  for  thinking,"  sard  the  prime  mi- 

*  Letter  from  the  Hon.  Gov.  Gage  to  the  Eurl  of  Dartmouth,  dated 
Boston,  20th  Sept.  1774. 

t  Debate  on  disturbances  in  America. 


184  DISPOSITIONS    FROM   THE 

PART  i.  nister,  Lord  North,  in  1770,*  "  that  the  American  associations 
^>^^~^J  not  to  buy  British  goods,  must  be  speedily  self-destroyed;  be 
cause  the  Americans,  to  distress  us,  will  not  injure  themselves; 
because  they  are  already  weary  of  giving  an  advanced  price 
for  commodities  they  are  obliged  lo  purchase;  and  because, 
after  all  the  hardships  which  they  say  their  commerce  groans 
under,  it  is  still  obviously  their  interest  not  to  commence  ma- 
,  nufactures." 

The  eloquent  Glover,  in  the  speech  at  the  bar  of  the  Com 
mons,  which  I  have  already  cited,  taught  that  body  a  more 
accurate  lesson,  while  he  took  an  instructive  review  of  the 
successive  delusions  of  the  nation. 

"  I  would  have  accompanied  others  more  speculative  through 
their  several  gr^diinons  of  hope,  still  disappointed,  and  still 
reviving,,  but  for  one  observation,  which  I  have  generally  kept 
concealed,  but  will  soon  reveal  to  you.  But  for  this  observa 
tion  I  might  have  concurred  with  the  public  belief,  that  the 
capital  of  a  province,  now  declared  in  rebellion,  would  have 
submitted  on  the  landing  of  a  few  regiments;  this  failing,  that 
other  provinces  from  ancient  jealousy  and  disgust  would  not 
have  interfered,  and  would  have  rather  sought  their  own  ad^ 
vantage  out  of  that  town's  distress;  this  failing,  that  they  never 
would  have  proceeded  to  the  length  of  constituting  a  certain 
inauspicious  assembly  among  themselves:  this  failing,  that  the 
members  of  such  assembly  would  have  disagreed,  and  not 
framed  a  single  resolution.  This  last  hope  having  proved  abor 
tive,  a  newr  one  is  popularly  adopted,  that  the  first  intelligence 
of  enforcing  measures,  at  least  the  bare  commencement  of 
their  execution  will  tame  the  most  refractory  spirits.  I  will 
here  state  the  grounds  of  this,  and  all  the  preceding  hopes; 
afterwards  with  your  indulgence  the  ground  of  my  original  and 
continued  doubts. 

u  Our  trading  nation  naturally  assumed,  that  the  present 
contention  would  be  with  traders  in  America,  The  stock  of 
a  trader,  whether  his  own,  or  in  part,  and  often  the  greatest 
part,  a  property  of  others,  confiding  in  him,  is  personal,  lodged 
in  a  magazine,  and  exposed  in  seasons  of  commotion  to  in 
stantaneous  devastation.  The  circumstance  of  such  property, 
the  considerations,  suggested  by  common  prudence,  by  the 
sense  of  common  justice  to  those,  who  have  given  a  generous 
credit,  rarely  make  room  for  that  intrepidity,  which  meets 
force  with  force.  Hence  I  admit,  that  the  mere  traffickers 
would  have  submitted  at  first,  and  will  now,  whenever  they 

*  Debate  on  American  tea  duty. 


PEACE  OP  1763.  185 

dare.  The  reason,  why  they  have  not  dared,  is  the  foundation  SECT.  VI. 
of  my  doubts. 

"  I  am  speaking  to  an  enlightened  assembly,  conversant 
with  their  own  annals.  In  those  ages,  the  reverse  of  commer 
cial,  when  your  ancestors  filled  the  ranks  of  men  at  arms,  and 
composed  the  cavalry  of  England,  of  whom  did  the  infantry 
consist?  A  race  unknown  to  other  kingdoms,  and  in  the  pre 
sent  opulence  of  traffic,  almost  extinct  in  this,  the  yeomanry  of 
England;  an  order  of  men,  possessing  paternal  inheritance, 
cultivated  under  their  own  care,  enough  to  preserve  indepen 
dence,  and  cherish  the  generous  sentiments  attendant  on  that 
condition;  without  superfluity  for  idleness,  or  effeminate  in 
dulgence. 

"  Of  such  doth  North  America  consist.  The  race  is  re 
vived  there  in  greater  numbers,  and  in  a  greater  proportion  to 
the  rest  of  the  inhabitants;  and  in  such  the  power  of  that  con 
tinent  resides.  These  keep  the  traffickers  in  awe.  These, 
many  hundred  thousands  in  multitude,  with  enthusiasm  in 
their  hearts,  with  the  petition,  the  bill  of  rights,  and  the  acts 
of  settlement,  silent  and  obsolete  in  some  places,  but  vociferous 
and  fresh,  as  newly  born,  among  them;  these,  hot  with  the 
blood  of  their  progenitors,  the  enthusiastic  scourges  at  one 
period,  and  the  revolutional  expellers,  of  tyranny,  at  another; 
these,  unpractised  in  frivolous  dissipation  and  ruinous  profu 
sion^  standing  armed  on  the  spot;  possessing,  delivered  down 
from  their  fathers,  a  property  not  moveable,  nor  exposed  to 
total  destruction,  therefore  maintainable,  and  exciting  all  the 
spirit  and  vigour  of  defence;  these,  under  such  circumstances 
of  number,  animation  and  manners,  their  lawyers  and  clergy 
blowing  the  trumpet,  are  we  to  encounter  with  a  handful  of 
men  sent  three  thousand  miles  over  the  ocean  to  seek  such 
adversaries  on  their  own  paternal  ground. — But  these  will  not 
fight ,  says  the  general  voice  of  Great  Britain"  &c. 

It  was  long  before  the  British  government  and  the  majority 
of  the  British  people,  could  be  persuaded  that  America  would 
have  the  resolution  to  look  the  mother  country  in  the  face,  and 
steadily  resist  its  immense  power.  They  supposed  a  success 
ful  resistance  impossible,  arguing  from  considerations  natural 
enough  in  the  frame  of  mind,  and  habits  of  action,  almost 
universal  throughout  Europe.  America  consisted,  to  their  eye, 
only  of  parts  of  a  nation,  and  those  the  meanest  in  quality, 
because  the  least  artificial  in  the  modification,  and  tinselled 
in  the  drapery;  she  had  neither  standing  armies,  disciplined 
forces,  fleets  nor  fortresses;  she  wanted  great  and  small  arms, 
flints,  ammunition;  she  laboured  under  a  scarcity  of  coin:  she 

VOL.  !.— As 


186  DISPOSITIONS    FROM   THE 

PART  i.  would  have  terrible  difficulty  in  procuring  clothing,  salt,  medi- 
v'-^"v-^'  cines;  jealousies  rankled  between  the  several  provinces,  and 
must  quickly  break  their  precipitate  league,  &c.  When  the 
revolution  took  a  consistent  character,  and  generated  resources, 
its  impetus  was  ascribed,  by  these  sagacious  reasoners,  to 
any  other  cause,  than  the  heroic  spirit  which  informed  it,  and 
which  easily  surmounted  all  common  obstacles.  They  were 
never  touched  by  what  they  could  not  discern,  and  their  infa 
tuation  continued  therefore  nearly  the  same  in  all  points.  In 
1776,  their  commissioner  on  the  coast  of  America,  Lord 
Howe,  was  instructed  to  offer  pardon  upon  submission;  and 
the  letters  which  passed  between  this  herald  of  clemency  and 
Dr.  Franklin,  as  one  of  the  committee  of  conference  deputed 
by  Congress,  were  published  the  same  year,  in  London,  to  show 
the  insolence  of  the  insurgents  in  refusing  the  offer  of  pardon 
upon  submission. 

f  The  following  extract  from  a  speech  of  Lord  George  Ger 
main,  of  May,  1777,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  will  furnish 
still  more  striking  evidence  of  the  manner  in  which  the  mi 
nistry  indulged  their  own  spleen,  and  fed  the  delusion  of  their 
followers.  His  Lordship  said — "  As  to  the  campaign,  he 
thought  he  had  the  greatest  reason  to  expect  success  from  the 
army  of  General  Howe,  being  in  good  order,  and  more  numer 
ous  from  recruits  than  in  the  last  campaign;  while  that  of  the 
rebels  was  in  much  worse  order,  and  less  numerous:  that  the 
fleet  was  also  reinforced  with  some  ships  of  the  line,  which 
were  wanting  last  year;  that  he  thought  himself  farther  found 
ed  in  his  expectation  from  the  minds  of  the  people  turning; 
from  their  experiencing  the  misery  of  anarchy,  confusion,  and 
despotism,  instead  of  the  happiness  and  security  they  enjoyed 
under  the  legal  government  of  this  country;  that  these  emo 
tions  had  operated  so  strongly  in  their  minds,  that  very  many 
deserters  had  left  the  rebel  army,  and  come  in  to  General 
Howe  with  their  arms;  many  hundreds  were  coming  in  every 
day:  that  he  had  formed  his  opinion  from  the  circumstances  oj 
the  Congress  having  given  up  the  government,  confessing  them 
selves  unequal  to  if,  and  created  Mr.  Washington  dictator  oj 
America;  these  circumstances,  bethought,  promised  divisions 
among  them.  That  another  circumstance  which  every  day 
proved  of  yet  greater  importance,  was,  their  being  disappoint 
ed  in  their  expectations  of  assistance  from  France.  They  had 
been  buoyed  up  with  that  hope,  and  made  to  believe,  that  a 
superior  French  fleet  would  be  seen  riding  on  their  coasts;  in 
all  which  they  now  felt  themselves  deceived,  and  resented  it 
accordingly.  That  they  had  met  with  the  same  disappoint- 


PEACE    OF    1763.  187 

Siient  from  Spain;  not  that  he  asserted  they  had  not  received  SECT.  VI. 
underhand  assistance  from  both,  in  officers,  &c.  but  what  they 
were  promised  was  open  avowed  assistance.  Yet,  Sir,  added 
his  lordship,  for  the  protection  of  France  they  would  pay 
largely;  they  have  offered  largely;  they  have,  by  their  pre 
tended  ambassadors,  actually  offered  to  the  French  court  all  our 
West  India  islands!  There  is  liberality,  Sir!  There  is  love  of 
freedom,  to  consign  so  readily  to  French  dominion  and  des 
potism,  the  whole  West  Indies!"* 

It  was  about  the  date  of  this  happy  effusion, — only  a  few 
months  before  the  surrender  of  Bourgoyne, — that  Lord  Stor- 
mont,  the  British  ambassador  at  the  court  of  Versailles,  being 
addressed  by  Messrs.  Franklin  and  Deane,  commissioners  of 
the  American  Congress  at  the  same  court,  on  the  subject  of  an 
exchange  of  prisoners,  answered  in  these  words — u  The 
King's  ambassador  receives  no  applications  from  rebels  unless 
they  come  to  implore  his  Majesty's  clemency!"  t 

4.  Besides  the  consideration  of  the  colossal  power  of  the 
mother  country,  and  the  many  acknowledged  obstacles  to  suc 
cessful  resistance  inherent  in  the  condition  and  habits  of  the 
colonies,  other  encouragements  were  wanted  by  the  ministe 
rial  majority  in  parliament,  and  still  more  by  the  body  of  the 
people,  for  perseverance  in  the  system  of  tyrannical  coercion. 
In  defiance  of  the  fresh  experience  of  the  war  of  '56;  of 
the  whole  current  of  the  colonial  history;  of  positive  evidence 
of  every  description;  the  moral  and  intellectual  character  of 
the  colonists  was  made  to  furnish  those  encouragements.  They 
were  at  once  cowards,  knaves,  and  dolts,  rebellious  and  inso 
lent,  whom  it  would  be  easy  to  subdue,  and  just  to  bring  un 
der  a  rigorous  discipline.  The  most  was  made  on  every  oc 
casion,  of  these  pretended  traits  and  dispositions,  for  the  sup 
port  of  the  ministerial  policy,  the  gratification  of  spleen,  or  the 
display  of  wit,  both  in  and  out  of  parliament.  What  passed 
in  that  body  ought  not  to  be  forgotten;  for,  it  affords  a  portent 
ous  and  instructive  example  of  national  arrogance  trampling 
on  all  public  decorum,  all  experience  and  verisimilitude,  all 
self-interest  and  self-respect;  all  justice  and  gratitude;  all  the 
most  sacred  regards,  and  endearing  affinities. 

With  respect  to  the  House  of  Commons,  a  single  extract 
from  the  Reports  of  its  debates,  may  suffice.  The  tenor  of  this 
extract  will  strike  every  reader  who  is  familiar  with  the  tone, 
and  favourite  topics,  of  the  late  English  publications  concern- 

*  See  note  L. 


188  DISPOSITIONS   FROM   THE 

PART  i.  ing  America.  /Colonel  Grant  said — "  he  had  served  in  Ame- 
^^^^^  rica;  knew  the  Americans  very  well;  was  certain  they  would 
not  fight;  they  would  never  dare  to  face  an  English  army;  and 
that  they  did  not  possess  any  of  the  qualifications  necessary  to 
make  a  good  soldier;  he  repeated  many  of  their  common-place 
expressions;  ridiculed  their  enthusiasm  in  religion,  and  drevj  a 
disagreeable  picture  of  their  manners  and  ways  of  living."*  *•' 

The  picture  sketched  by  the  gallant  colonel  is  said  to  have 
produced  much  mirth  in  the  House,  and  obtained  implicit  cre 
dit  from  the  majority.  The  chronicles  of  the  time  relate  that 
a  suspicion  of  its  accuracy  did  not  arise,  until  some  months 
after,  when  news  was  received  in  England  of  the  battle  of 
Breeds'  Hill;  and  of  the  expedition  to  Canada,  which,  as  it  is 
related  by  Brougham  in  his  Colonial  Policy,  furnishes  an  ex 
cellent  comment  on  the  speech  of  Grant. 

"  While  the  most  sanguine  friends  of  American  indepen 
dence  scarcely  ventured  to  hope  that  the  colonists  would  be 
able  to  maintain  their  ground  against  the  forces  of  the  mother 
country,  they  astonished  the  world,  by  commencing  offensive 
operations.  The  very  first  campaign  of  that  unhappy  war,  was 
signalized  by  a  successful  expedition  of  the  revolvers  against 
the  stations  of  the  British  forces  on  the  frontiers  of  Canada; 
and  the  gates  of  that  province  were  thus  thrown  open  to  the 
most  formidable  invasion,  which  threatened  the  total  conquest 
of  the  country  before  the  end  of  the  same  year.  The  gallant 
leaders  to  whom  those  operations  were  entrusted,  actually  re 
duced  the  whole  of  Upper  Canada,  and  were  only  foiled  in 
their  attempts  on  Quebec,  by  the  ill  choice  of  the  season,  owing 
chiefly  to  the  divisions  of  opinion  that  constantly  attend  the 
offensive  measures  of  governments  newly  formed  upon  a  popu 
lar  model;  the  union  of  the  besieged  in  defence  of  their  large 
property,  which  they  were  taught  to  believe  would  be  exposed 
to  the  plunder  of  the  rebels;  and  the  extensive  powers  wisely 
confided  by  the  British  government,  to  General  Carleton — 
powers  formerly  unknown  in  any  of  the  colonies,  and  utterly 
inconsistent  with  a  government  bearing  the  faintest  resem 
blance  to  a  popular  form.  Thus  had  the  infant  republic  of 
America,  immediately  at  the  commencement  of  separate  ope 
rations,  and  above  half  a  year  previous  to  the  formal  declara 
tion  of  independence,  almost  succeeded  in  the  conquest  of  a 

*  Debate  of  JEJeb.  2d,  1775.  This  Colonel  Grant  was  the  same  that 
commanded  th"e  detachment  whose  defeat  near  Fort  Duquesne  I  have 
noticed  in  my  4th  Section,  and  which  was  preserved  from  utter  de 
struction  by  the  bravery  of  the  Virginia  militia. 


PEACE  OF  1763.  189 

British  colony,  strong  by  its  natural  position,  by  the  vigour  of  SECT.  VI. 
its  internal  administration,  by  the  experience  of  the  veteran  ^*^-^> 
troops  who  defended  it,  and  by  the  skill  of  the  gallant  officer 
who  commanded  these  forces;  while  the  only  advantages  of 
the  assailants  consisted  in  the  romantic  valour  of  their  leaders, 
the  enthusiasm  of  men  fighting  in  their  own  cause,  and  the 
vigorous  councils  of  an  independent  community."* 

In  the  House  of  Lords,  the  empyrean  of  British  legislation 
and  senatorial  dignity,  "  that  great  body  of  his  majesty's  brave 
and  faithful  subjects  with  which  his  American  provinces  hap 
pily  abounded,"!  was  still  more  roughly  handled  than  in  St.^ 
Stephen's  Chapel.  "  A  little  before  I  left  London,  in  1775," 
says  FranklinJ  u  being  at  the  House  of  Lords  when  a  debate 
in  which  Lord  Camden  was  to  speak,  and  who,  indeed,  spoke 
admirably  on  American  affairs,  I  was  much  disgusted  from 
the  ministerial  side,  by  many  base  reflections  on  American 
courage,  religion,  understanding,  &c.  in  which  we  were  treat 
ed  with  the  utmost  contempt,  as  the  lowest  of  mankind,  and 
almost  of  a  different  species  from  the  English  of  Britain;  but 
particularly  the  American  honesty  was  abused  by  some  of  the 
lords,  who  asserted  that  we  were  all  knaves,  and  wanted  only 
by  this  dispute  to  avoid  paying  our  debts;  that  if  we  had  any 
sense  of  equity  or  justice,  we  should  offer  payment  of  the 
tea,"  &c. 

The  parliamentary  history  furnishes  copious  proof  of  this 
statement  of  Franklin.  Such  specimens  abound  as  the  follow 
ing:  "  Earl  Talbot  said,  the  noble  Earl  who  spoke  last  has 
certainly  hit  off  one  leading  feature  of  the  Americans.  His 
lordship  tells  you  that  even  in  the  midst  of  their  zeal  for  free 
dom  and  independence,  they  were  not  able  to  conquer  their 
natural  propensity  to  fraud  and  concealment,"  &c.  &c. 

"  The  duke  of  Chandos  rose,  and  moved  an  address  of 
thanks.  His  grace  began  with  stating  the  many  public  and 
private  virtues  of  the  sovereign,  and  the  obstinacy,  baseness,  and 
ingratitude,  of  his  rebellious  subjects  in  ^America,"  &c.  &c. 

The  extent  to  which  this  obloquy  was  carried  on  one  point, 
is  evidenced,  even  by  a  protest  of  the  minority,  who  adduced 
it  as  one  of  their  motives  to  dissent,  in  the  following  remark 
able  language:  "  We  do  not  apprehend  that  the  topic  so  much 
insisted  upon  by  a  lord  high  in  office,  namely,  the  cowardice  of 
his  Majesty's  American  subjects,  to  have  any  weight  in  itself, 
or  be  at  all  agreeable  to  the  dignity  of  sentiment  which  ought 


Book  II.  Sect.  i.         f  Vide  page  121.  *  Memoirs,  vol.  i. 


190  DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THE 

PARTI,   to  characterize  this  House.     This  is  to  call  for  resistance, 
V-*P~V~'NW  and  to  provoke  rebellion  by  the  most  powerful  of  all  mo'.ives 
which  can  act  upon   men  of  any  degree  of  spirit  and  sensi 
bility." 

The  lord  high  in  office  alluded  to  in  the  protest,  was  the 
Earl  of  Sandwich,  who  presided  over  the  admiralty,  and  pos 
sessed  a  considerable  share  of  influence  in  the  cabinet.  His 
speech  is  a  precious  sample,  of  the  general  strain  of  the  mother 
country  at  this  period,  respecting  her  transatlantic  offspring.  It 
is  a  model  which  has  hardly  been  surpassed  in  the  multitude 
of  similar  effusions  at  our  expense,  to  which  almost  every 
year  since  its  date  has  given  birth.  Its  pleasantry  is  inimita 
ble;  and  the  truth  of  the  details,  as  well  as  the  delicacy  of  the 
tone,  will  be  more  strongly  felt,  on  a  reference  to  what  I  have 
narrated,  in  regard  to  the  conduct  of  the  provincials  at  Louis- 
bourg,  and  the  efficacy  of  their  conquest. 

nf  /  "The  Earl  of  Sandwich  said — suppose  the  colonies  do 
abound  in  men,  what  does  that  signify?  They  are  raw,  undis 
ciplined,  cowardly  men.  I  wish,  instead  of  40,  or  50,000 
of  these  brave  fellows,  they  would  produce  in  the  field  at  least 
200,000.  The  more  the  better:  the  easier  would  be  the  con 
quest;  if  they  did  not  run  away  they  would  starve  themselves 
into  compliance  with  our  measures.  I  will  tell  your  lordships 
an  anecdote  that  happened  at  the  siege  of  Louisbourg.  Sir 
Peter  Warren  told  me,  that  in  order  to  try  the  courage  of  the 
Americans,  he  ordered  that  a  great  nusnber  of  them  should  be 
placed  in  the  front  of  the  armv;  the  Americans  pretended  at 
first  to  be  very  much  elated  at  this  mark  of  distinction,  and 
boasted  what  mighty  feats  they  would  do  upon  the  scene  of 
action;  however,  when  the  moment  came  to  put  in  execution 
this  boasted  courage,  behold,  every  one  of  them  ran  from  the 
front  to  the  rear  of  the  army,  with  as  much  expedition  as  their 
feet  could  carry  them,  and  threatened  to  go  off  entirely,  if  the 
commander  offered  to  make  them  a  shield  to  protect  the  Bri 
tish  soldiers  at  the  expense  of  their  blood;  they  did  not  under 
stand  such  usage.  Sir  Peter  finding  what  egregious  cowards 
they  were,  and  knowing  of  what  importance  such  numbers 
would  be  to  intimidate  the  French  by  their  appearance,  told 
these  American  heroes,  that  his  orders  had  been  misunderstood, 
that  he  always  intended  to  keep  them  in  the  rear  of  the  army 
to  make  the  great  push;  that  it  was  the  custom  of  generals  to 
preserve  the  best  troops  to  the  last;  that  this  was  also  the 
Roman  custom,  and  as  the  Americans  resembled  the  Romans 
in  every  thing,  particularly  in  courage  and  a  love  to  their 
rountry,  he  should  make  no  scruple  of  following  the  Roman 


PEACE  OF  1763.  191 

custom,  and  he  made  no  doubt  but  the  modern  Romans  would  SECT. VI. 
show  acts  of  bravery  equal  to  any  in  ancient  Rome.  By  such 
discourses  as  these,  said  Sir  Peier  Warren,  I  made  shift  to 
keep  them  with  us,  though  1  took  care  they  should  be  pushed 
forward  in  no  dangerous  conflict.  Now,  I  can  tell  the  noble 
Lord,  that  this  is  exactly  the  situation  of  all  the  heroes  in 
North  America;  they  are  all  Romans.  And  are  those  men  to 
fright  us  from  the  post  of  honour?  Believe  me,  my  lords,  the 
very  sound  of  a  cannon  would  carry  them  off,  in  Sir  Peter's 
words,  as  fast  as  their  feet  could  carry  them."*/ 

Although  a  majority  of  the  noble  lords  chuckled  at  the  wag 
gery  of  the  British  commodore,  and  the  vis  comica  of  the  head 
of  the  Admiralty,  there  was,  as  the  above-mentioned  protest 
teaches,  a  small  minority  of  the  assembly,  who  neither  relished 
the  joke,  nor  comprehended  the  manliness  of  this  course  of 
argument  in  favour  of  the  proscription  of  a  whole  people.  A 
generous  indignation  at  the  language  held  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  roused  several  of  the  members  of  that  body,  to 
stem  the  torrent  of  opprobrium,  and  I  should  commit  an  in 
justice,  if  I  did  not  repeat  something  of  what  was  uttered  on 
the  American  side. 

'/Col.  Barre  said — the  Americans  had  been  called  cow 
ards,  but  the  very  regiment  of  foot  which  behaved  so  gallantly 
at  Bunkers-hill,  (an  engagement  that  smacked  more  of  defeat 
than  victory)  the  very  corps  that  broke  the  whole  French  co 
lumn  and  threw  them  in  such  disorder  at  the  siege  of  Quebec, 
was  three  parts  composed  of  these  cowards."!  Governor 
Johnstone  paid  the  following  tribute:  "  To  a  mind  that  loves 
to  contemplate  the  glorious  spirit  of  freedom,  no  spectacle  can 
be  more  affecting  than  the  action  at  Bunkers-hill.  To  see  an 
irregular  peasantry  commanded  by  a  physician;  inferior  in 
numbers;  opposed  by  every  circumstance  of  cannon  and  bombs 
that  could  terrify  timid  minds,  calmly  waiting  the  attack  of 
the  gallant  Howe,  leading  on  the  best  troops  in  the  world,  with 
an  excellent  train  of  artillery,  and  twice  repulsing  those  very 
troops  who  had  often  chased  the  battalions  of  France,  and  at 
last  retiring  for  want  of  ammunition,  but  in  so  respectable  a 
manner  that  they  were  not  even  pursued — Who  can  reflect  on 
such  scenes  and  not  adore  the  constitution  of  government 
which  could  breed  such  men!"J  ' 

The  pusillanimity  of  the  provit/cials  served  as  an  enliven 
ing  topic  for  the  circles  of  fashion,  and  the  clubs  of  the  coffee 

*  Debate,  March  15th,  1775.  i  Ibid.-— See  Note  M. 

r  Debate,  October  26th,  1775. 


DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THE 

PART  f.  houses,  as  well  as  for  the  august  body  of  parliament.  Accord- 
•^"v-^*'  ing  to  Franklin,*  "  every  man  in  England,  in  the  year  1767, 
seemed  to  consider  himself  as  a  piece  of  a  sovereign  over 
America;  seemed  to  jostle  himself  into  the  throne  with  the 
king,  and  talked  of  our  subjects  in  the  colonies."  In  1775, 
almost  every  man  in  England  thought  himself  able  to  conquer 
America,  and  talked,  in  the  words  of  the  ministry,  of  the  pali 
node  which  the  dastardly  Americans  would  sing,  at  the  very 
appearance  of  a  single  British  regiment.  The  English  news 
papers  of  the  day  bear  me  out  in  this  representation;  and 
Franklin  has  left  on  record,  in  one  of  his  letters,*  a  piece  of 
concurrent  testimony  sufficiently  pointed.  It  is  to  be  insert 
ed  here,  not  merely  for  the  sake  of  the  historical  fact,  but  for 
the  concluding  observations,  which  I  wish  to  be  taken  as  a 
commentary.,  upon  all  that  1  have  quoted  on  this  head  from 
the  British  orators. 

"  The  word  general  puts  me  in  mind  of  a  general,  your 
general  Clarke,  who  had  the  folly  to  say,  in  my  hearing,  at 
Sir  John  Pririgle's,  that  with  a  thousand  British  grenadiers,  he 
would  undertake  to  go  from  one  end  of  America  to  the  other, 
and  geld  all  the  males,  partly  by  force  and  partly  by  a  little 
coaxing.  It  is  plain  he  took  us  for  a  species  of  animals  very 
little  superior  to  brutes.  The  parliament  too  believed  the 
stories  of  another  foolish  general,  I  forget  his  name,  that  the 
Yankees  never  felt  bold. 

"  Yankey  was  understood  to  be  a  sort  of  Yahoo,  and  the 
parliament  did  not  think  that  the  petitions  of  such  creatures 
were  fit  to  be  received  and  read  in  so  wise  an  assembly.  What 
was  the  consequence  of  this  monstrous  pride  and  insolence? 
You  first  sent  small  armies  to  subdue  us,  believing  them  more 
than  sufficient,  but  soon  found  yourselves  obliged  to  send 
greater;  these,  whenever  they  ventured  to  penetrate  our  coun 
try  beyond  the  protection  of  their  ships,  were  either  repulsed 
and  obliged  to  scamper  out,  or  were  surrounded,  beaten,  and 
taken  prisoners.  An  American  planter,  who  had  never  seen 
Europe,  was  chosen  by  us  to  command  our  troops,  and  con 
tinued  during  the  whole  war.  This  man  sent  home  to  you, 
one  after  another,  five  of  your  best  generals  baffled,  their  heads 
bare  of  laurels,  disgraced  even  in  the  opinion  of  their  em 
ployers.  Your  contempt  of  our  understandings,  in  compari 
son  with  your  own,  appeared  to  be  not  much  better  founded 
than  that  of  our  courage,  if  we  may  judge  by  this  circum 

*  Letter  to  Lord  Kames.     London,  April  1  ith,  1767- 
f  August  19th,  1784. 


PEACE  OF  1763.  393 

•stance,  that  in  whatever  court  of  Europe  a  Yankey  negociator  SECT.VI. 
appeared,  the  wise  British  minister  was  routed,  put  in  a  pas*  v^v^^ 
sion,  picked  a  quarrel  with  your  friends,  and  was  sent  home 
with  a  flea  in  his  ear." 

5.  The  extreme  of  acrimony,  nay  ferociousness,  into  which 
the  temper  of  the  ministerial  party  towards  the  colonies  had 
run  in  England,  before  the  declaration  of  independence,  and 
even  within  three  or  four  years  after  the  peace  of  Paris,  is 
scarcely  conceivable  on  a  review  of  the  many  circumstances 
which  tended,  with  such  weight  of  reason,  and  force  of  pa 
thos,  to  produce  the  opposite  state  of  mind.  We  have  seen 
that,  from  a  mere  calculation  of  interest,  or  from  party-aims, 
the  restoration  of  Canada  was  proposed,  at  the  very  moment, 
of  the  consummation  of  the  common  efforts  of  the  mother  coun 
try  and  the  colonies  in  the  struggle  with  France.  When  the  co 
lonies  had  barely  ventured  to  denounce  the  stamp-act,  the  idea 
of  a  more  direct  c/iecfc,  of  vindictive  visitation  by  similar  means, 
was  admitted  and  inculcated.  Franklin,  writing  from  London 
in  1768,  tells  his  correspondent,  "  I  can  assure  you,  that  here 
are  not  wanting  people,  not  now  in  the  ministry,  but  that  soon 
may  be,  who,  if  they  were  ministers,  would  take  no  step  to 
prevent  an  Indian  war  in  the  colonies;  being  of  opinion,  which 
they  express  openly,  that  it  would  be  a  very  good  thing,  in  the 
first  place,  to  chastise  the  colonists  for  their  undutifulness,  and 
then  to  make  them  sensible  of  the  necessity  of  protection  by 
the  troops  of  this  country." 

We  read  in  the  history  of  Gordon,  where  he  treats  of  the 
discussions  in  parliament  respecting  the  repeal  of  the  stamp- 
act,  that  "  the  Dukes  of  York  and  Cumberland,  the  Lords  of 
the  Bed  Chamber,  and  the  officers  of  the  royal  household, 
were  for  carrying  fire  and  sword  to  America,  rather  than  re- 
cal  the  obnoxious  act;  and  that  the  bench  of  bishops  joined 
them."*  The  unnatural  rancour  which  dictated  this  fell  policy, 
could  readily  tolerate  that  of  starving  the  provinces  of  New 
England,  by  cutting  them  off  from  the  fishery  on  their  own 
coast.  In  extenuation  of  this  measure,  and  in  answer  to  the 
objections  of  the  opposition  in  parliament,  who,  with  the  mi 
nistry,  believed  it  might  produce  famine,  the  Solicitor  General 
of  Scotland,  a  ministerial  oracle,  said,  "  that  though  prevent 
ed  from  fishing  in  the  sea,  the  New  Englanders  had  fish  in 
their  rivers,  to  which  this  act  did  not  prevent  them  from  re 
sorting;  and  that,  though  he  understood  their  country  was  not 

•  Vol.  ii.  p.  139. 

VOL.  !.—B  b 


194  DISPOSITIONS    FROM   THE 

PART  I.  fit  ibr  grain,  jet  they  had  a  grain  of  their  own,  Indian  corn* 
Na^'^W  on  which  they  might  subsist  full  as  well  as  they  deserved."* 

When  such  language  was  held  on  a  question  of  this  nature, 
it  is  not  matter  of  surprise  that,  in  the  same  year,  the  majority 
in  parliament  listened,  not  merely  without  shuddering,  but 
with  complacency,  to  the  significative  intimation  already  no 
ticed,  of  one  of  its  members,  Governor  Lyttleton,  respecting 
the  seduction  of  the  American  negroes. 

The  consoling  image  of  a  servile  war  in  the  southern  colo 
nies,  had  even  become  familiar,  to  the  meditations  of  the  politi 
cians,  and  was  industriously  presented  to  the  nation.  "  If  the 
obstinacy  of  the  Americans  continues  without  actual  hostili 
ties,"  said  Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  Taxation  no  Tyranny,  u  it  may 
perhaps  be  mollified  by  turning  out  the  soldiers  to  free  quarters, 
forbidding  any  personal  cruelty  or  hurt.  It  has  been  proposed, 
that  the  slaves  should  be  set  free,  an  act  which  surely  the  lovers 
of  liberty  cannot  but  commend.  If  they  are  furnished  with 
tire-arms,  for  defence,  and  utensils  for  husbandry,  and  settled 
in  some  simple  form  of  government  within  the  country,  they 
may  be  more  grateful  and  honest  than  their  masters."! 

The  Governors  of  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Florida,  in 
carrying  this  plan  into  effect,  forgot  the  utensils  of  husbandry, 
but  not  the  fire-arms;  and  offered  them  to  the  negroes,  to  be 
used  not  strictly  for  personal  defence,  but  in  defence  of  their 
sovereign!  The  ministry  upheld,  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
Lord  Dunmore's  celebrated  proclamation  of  the  7th  Nov. 
1775,  of  which  the  following  passage  is  hardly  yet  effaced 
from  the  memory  of  the  Virginians.  "  I  do  declare  all  indent 
ed  servants,  negroes  or  others  appertaining  to  rebels,  free,  that 
are  able  and  willing  to  bear  arms,  they  joining  his  majesty's 
troops  as  soon  as  may  be,  for  the  more  speedily  reducing  this 
tolony  to  a  proper  sense  of  their  duty  to  his  majesty's  crown  and 
dignity" 

Mr.  Burke,  referring  to  this  subject  in  his  speech  on  the 
Conciliation  with  America,  made  some  remarks,  the  last  of 
which  may  be  particularly  recommended  to  the  attention  of 

*  Debate  of  the  Commons,  March  6th,  1775. 

f  "  That  this  pamphlet  (Taxation  no  Tyranny)  was  written  at  the 
desire  of  those  who  were  then  in  power,  I  have  no  doubt ;  and,  indeed, 
Johnson  owned  to  me,  that  it  had  been  revised  and  curtailed  by  some 
of  them.  He  told  me,  that  they  had  struck  out  one  passage,  which  was 
to  this  effect :  "That  the  colonists  could  with  no  solidity  argue  from 
their  not  having  been  taxed  while  in  their  infancy,  that  they  should  not 
now  be  taxed.  We  do  not  put  a  calf  into  the  plough;  we  wait  till  he 
is  an  ox."  He  said,  "  They  struck  it  out  either  critically  as  too  ludicrous, 
or  politically  as  too  exasperating."  (JJosivell.) 


PEACE  OF  1763.  196 

those  British  critics,  who  so  often  discharge  upon  us,  on  account  SECT.  vi. 
of  our  slave-holding,  "  the  splendid  bile  of  their  virtuous  in-  ^^^^^^ 
dignation." 

aWith  regard  to  the  high  aristocratic  spirit  of  Virginia  and 
the  southern  colonies,  it  has  been  proposed,  I  know,  to  reduce 
it,  by  declaring  a  general  enfranchisement  of  their  slaves. 
This  project  has  had  its  advocates  and  panegyrists.  But  I 
could  never  argue  myself  into  an  opinion  of  it.  Slaves  as 
these  unfortunate  black  people  are,  and  dull  as  all  men  are 
from  slavery,  must  they  not  a  little  suspect  the  offer  of  free 
dom  from  that  very  nation,  which  has  sold  them  to  their  pre 
sent  masters'?  From  that  nation,  one  of  whose  causes  of  quar 
rel  with  those  masters,  is  their  refusal  to  deal  any  more  in  that 
inhuman  traffic?" 

The  manifesto  and  proclamation  which  the  British  commis 
sioners/or  restoring  peace,  addressed  to  the  Americans  in  Oc 
tober  1778,  denounced  a  war  of  havoc,  in  terms  that  occasion 
ed  a  motion  in  parliament  for  solemn  reprobation.  In  the 
course  of  the  animated  debate  on  this  motion,*  the  American 
Congress  of  that  era, — now  classed  by  universal  assent,  with 
the  wisest  and  most  virtuous  assemblies  of  the  kind  which  are 
mentioned  in  history, — was  the  particular  object  of  proscrip 
tion  and  opprobrium,  with  members  of  both  parties.  Mr. 
Powys  said,  "  if  the  Congress  could  be  picked  up,  man  by 
man,  and  put  to  the  most  exemplary  punishment,  they  should 
all  fall  unpitied  by  him,  because  they  really  deserved  every 
severity  that  could  be  inflicted  on  them." 

Governor  Johnston^  "approved  of  the  proclamation  through 
out,  and  condemned  the  American  Congress  in  the  strongest 
terms.  He  thought  no  quarter  ought  to  be  shown  to  them;  and 
if  the  infernals  could  be  let  loose  against  them  he  should  approve 
of  the  measure.  He  said,  the  proclamation  certainly  did  mean 
a  war  of  desolation;  it  meant  nothing  else:  it  could  mean  no 
thing  else;  and  if  he  had  been  on  the  spot  when  it  was  issued, 
he  would  have  signed  it." 

Mr.  Attorney  General  Wedderburn  said,  "  that  the  procla 
mation  was  as  sober,  conscientious,  and  humane  a  piece  of 
good  writing  as  he  ever  saw:  he  explained  away  the  phrase 
of  the  c  extremes  of  war,'  and  asserted  that  nothing  could  be 
done  but  what  was  necessary  to  self  preservation,  which  he 
avowed  was  a  sufficient  plea  for  all  the  horrors  of  war." 

*  Dec.  4th,  1778. 

f  His  appointment  by  the  ministry  as  one  of  the  commissioners  to 
America,  explains  the  contrariety  between  his  tone  at  this  period,  and 
that  which  he  adopted  at  the  beginning  of  the  war. 


196  DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THE 

PART  i.  Mr.  Macdonald  "  understood  the  part  of  the  proclamation 
^~v-^/  which  gave  such  an  alarm,  to  be  nothing  more  than  a  warning 
to  the  rebels  not  to  expect  that  lenity  in  future,  which  we  had 
shown  to  them  during  the  course  of  the  war,  when  we  looked 
upon  them  as  our  fellow  subjects,  and  whom  we  wished  to 
reclaim  by  the  most  singular  mildness  and  indulgence.  By 
their  alliance  with  France,  the  natural  enemy  of  our  country, 
they  had  forfeited  all  right  to  clemency;  they  were  therefore  in 
future  to  be  treated  no  longer  as  subjects  of  Great  Britain,  but 
as  appendages  to  the  French  monarchy,  whose  interests  they 
had  preferred  to  the  British:  parental  fondness  should  no  lon 
ger  sway  the  breasts  of  our  rulers;  war  should  assume  a  dif- 
ierent  form  from  that  in  which  it  had  been  conducted  from  the 
beginning  of  the  rebellion;  and  the  Americans  might  prepare 
to  be  treated,  not,  indeed,  like  beasts,  or  savages,  but  like 
common  enemies,  for  whom  we  no  longer  retained  any  trace 
of  affection,  which  their  unnatural  alliance  had  absolutely 
effaced,  but  which  had  subsisted  longer  than  it  could  have 
prudently  been  expected,  after  the  many  unprecedented  pro 
vocations  they  had  given  Great  Britain  to  take  off  the  ties  of 
affection  at  a  much  more  early  period.  War  now  they  should 
have  in  its  full  vigour;  not  such  an  one  as  they  had  been  all 
along  accustomed  to,  and  which  had  been  so  tempered  with 
peace,  that  it  scarcely  deserved  the  name  of  war.  This  he 
conceived  to  be  the  meaning  of  the  words  in  the  proclamation; 
he  hoped  it  would  have  the  desired  effect  on  the  rebels;  he 
flattered  himself  that  it  was  a  happy  omen  to  see  the  friends 
of  America  so  alarmed  at  it;  and  their  terrors  he  would  deem 
the  forerunners  of  that  general  consternation  in  America,  which 
would  make  the  deluded  colonists  open  their  eyes  before  it 
should  be  too  late,  and  return  to  their  allegiance  to  the  mother 
country." 

6.  There  is  still  a  sort  of  incredulity  of  the  imagination  when 
we  reflect,  how  soon  the  parent  state  resorted  to  the  expedient 
of  annoyance — the  last  which,  in  the  order  of  penal  visitation, 
would  present  itself  to  the  fiercest  hate  against  the  most  de 
testable  object,  or  to  the  most  just  revenge  for  (he  deepest  and 
bitterest  injury.  It  will  be  at  once  understood  that  I  mean 
the  employment  of  the  savages  as  auxiliaries;  an  enormity  of 
rancour  and  desperate  ambition,  which  drew  down  those 
blasting  thunders  from  the  genius  of  Chatham,  that  seem  to  be 
still  heard,  when  we  look  at  the  faint  image  of  them  conveyed 
in  the  parliamentary  history.  Two  years  after  the  commence 
ment  of  the  revolution,  had  this  prophetic  and  generous  spirit 


PEACE  OP  176^.  19? 

to  teil  bis  countrymen,  in  an  agony  of  shame  and  grief,  tc  It  is  SECT.  VI. 
not  a  \vild  and  lawless  banditti  whom  we  oppose: — the  resist-  ^^^~**s 
ance  of  America  is  the  struggle  of  free  and  virtuous  patriots." 
The  cruelty  and  degeneracy  of  associating  to  the  British  arms 
the  tomahawk  and  scalping-knife — of  "  trafficking  at  the 
shambles  of  every  German  despot"  for  the  purpose  of  crush 
ing  that  resistance;  of  butchering  a  people  chiefly  descended 
from  British  loins,  and  from  whose  labours  Britain  had  reap 
ed  so  rich  a  harvest  of  power  and  glory,  might  well  produce 
the  "  sanctified  phrenzy"  to  which  he  was  wrought.  But  he 
recollected,  besides,  how  long  that  people  had  struggled  with 
"  the  merciless  Indian"  for  the  possession  of  the  soil,  on 
which  they  had  reared  English  communities  and  institutions; 
and  he  felt,  in  seeing  the  same  inveterate  enemy  led  back 
upon  them,  by  the  country  for  whose  benefit  nearly  as  much 
as  their  own,  they  had  fought  so  bravely,  and  bled  so  pro 
fusely,  the  peculiar  hardship  and  bitterness  of  their  lot,  and 
the  unparalleled  barbarity  and  callousness  of  England.  There 
was  enough  to  rouse  all  the  energies  of  his  humanity  and  his 
patriotism,  in  the  item  which  the  treasury  accounts  presented, 
of  =£160,000  sterling,  for  the  purchase  of  warlike  accoutre 
ments  for  the  savages; — in  that  phrase,  as  ridiculous  as  it  was 
ferocious,  of  Bourgoyne's  speech  to  the  congress  of  Indians  at 
the  river  Bouquet  (June  21st,  1777) — "  Go  forth  in  the 
might  of  your  valour  and  your  cause;  strike  at  the  common 
enemies  of  Great  Britain  and  America,  disturbers  of  public 
order,  peace,  and  happiness;  destroyers  of  commerce;  parri 
cides  of  the  state;" — and  in  the  proclamation  of  governor 
Tonyn  of  East  Florida,  offering  a  reward  for  every  American 
scalp  delivered  to  persons  appointed  to  receive  them. 

It  is  an  aggravation  of  guilt  that  the  utmost  efforts  of  the 
highest  degree  of  human  eloquence,  seconded  by  the  most  ma 
ture  wisdom  and  approved  patriotism,  were  wholly  without 
effect.  Throughout  the  war,  the  mother  country  displayed  as 
haughty  and  ruthless  a  spirit,  as  if  she  were  in  fact  engaged  in 
crushing  "  a  wild  and  lawless  banditti,"  or  resisting  an  here 
ditary  enemy  and  rival,  alien  and  odious  to  her  by  every  prin 
ciple  of  estrangement  and  aversion.*  The  Americans  whom 
she  made  prisoners  in  the  contest,  persisting,  as  they  did,  in 
rejecting  all  temptations  to  enter  into  her  service  against  their 
country,  so  far  from  conciliating  kindness  by  their  magnani 
mity,  experienced  a  more  rigorous  treatment  than  the  French 
and  Spaniards  in  the  same^situation.  After  many  hundreds 

See  Note  \f. 


198 


DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THE 


PART  1.  of  them  had  languished  for  several  years  in  a  cruel  captivity, 
^*~v^*>  they  petitioned  the  government  in  vain  for  an  equal  allowance 
of  provision.  The  earl  of  Shelburne  affirmed  in  the  House  ol 
Lords,  in  the  debate  of  December  5th,  1777,  that  "  the 
French  officers  "taken  prisoners  going  to  America,  had  been 
inhumanly  treated;  but  that  the  American  prisoners  in  Eng 
land  were  treated  with  unprecedented  barbarity." 

The  American  Board  of  War  had  a  conference  with  Mr. 
Boudinot,  the  commissary  general  of  prisoners,  at  York  town, 
on  the  21st  of  December,  1777,  and  after  having  carefully  ex 
amined  the  evidence  produced  by  him,  agreed  upon  the  fol 
lowing  report:  "  That  there  are  about  900  privates,  and  300 
officers  prisoners  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  about  500 
privates  and  50  officers  in  Philadelphia: — That  the  privates 
in  New  York  have  been  crowded  all  summer  in  sugar-houses, 
and  the  officers  boarded  on  Long  Island,  except  about  30,  who 
have  been  confined  in  the  provost  guard,  and  in  the  most  loath 
some  jails: — That  since  the  beginning  of  October  all  these 
prisoners,  both  officers  and  privates,  have  been  confined  in 
prison  ships,  or  the  provost: — That  the  privates  in  Philadel 
phia  have  been  kept  in  two  public  jails,  and  the  officers  in  the 
state  house: — That,  from  the  best  evidence  which  the  nature 
of  the  subject  will  admit  of,  the  general  allowance  of  prison 
ers,  at  most  does  not  exceed  four  ounces  of  meat  and  as  much 
bread  (often  so  damaged  as  not  to  be  eatable)  per  day,  and 
often  much  less,  though  the  professed  allowance  is  from  eight 
to  ten  ounces: — That  it  has  been  a  common  practice  with  the 
enemy,  on  a  prisoners  being  first  captured,  to  keep  him  three, 
four,  or  even  five  days  without  a  morsel  of  provisions  of  any 
kind,  and  then  to  tempt  him  to  enlist  to  save  his  life: — That 
there  are  numerous  instances  of  prisoners  of  war  perishing  in 
all  the  agonies  of  hunger  from  their  severe  treatment: — That 
being  generally  stript  of  what  clothes  they  have  when  taken, 
they  have  suffered  greatly  for  the  want  thereof,  during  their 
confinement." 

Mr.  Burke,  in  one  of  his  publications  of  the  year  1776, 
sarcastically  remarks,  "  it  is  undoubtedly  some  comfort  for 
our  disappointments  and  burdens,  to  insult  the  few  provin 
cial  officers  we  take,  by  throwing  them  with  common  men 
into  a  gaol,  and  some  triumph  to  hold  the  bold  adventurer 
Ethan  Allen,  in  irons  in  a  dungeon  in  Cornwall." 

This  gallant  American  was  taken  prisoner,  fighting  with 
the  utmost  bravery,  in  Canada,  under  the  banners  of  Mont 
gomery.  He  was  immediately  loaded  with  irons,  and  trans 
ported  to  England,  in  that  condition,  on  board  of  a  man-of- 


PEACE  OF  1763.  199 

war.  On  some  observations  being  made  in  the  House  of  SECT.  VI. 
Lords,  by  the  duke  of  Richmond,  concerning  his  treatment, 
the  earl  of  Suffolk,  one  of  the  ministry,  made  this  reply — 
u  The  noble  duke  says,  we  brought  over  Ethan  Allen  in  irons 
to  this  country,  but  were  afraid  to  try  him,  lest  he  should  be 
acquitted  by  an  English  jury,  or  that  we  should  not  be  able 
legally  to  convict  him.  I  do  assure  his  Grace,  that  he  is 
equally  mistaken  in  both  his  conjectures;  we  neither  had  a 
doubt  but  we  should  be  able  to  legally  convict  him,  nor  were 
we  afraid  that  an  English  jury  would  have  acquitted  him; 
nor  further  was  it  out  of  any  tenderness  to  the  maw,  who,  I 
maintain,  had  justly  forfeited  his  life  to  the  offended  laws  of 
his  country.  But  I  will  tell  his  Grace  the  true  motives  which 
induced  administration  to  act  as  they  did.  We  were  aware 
that  the  rebels  had  lately  made  a  considerable  number  of  pri 
soners,  and  we  accordingly  avoided  bringing  him  to  his  trial 
from  considerations  of  prudence;  from  a  dread  of  the  conse 
quences  of  retaliation;  not  from  a  doubt  of  his  legal  guilt,  or 
a  fear  of  his  acquittal  by  an  English  jury."* 

The  conduct  and  temper  of  the  ministry  in  the  case  of  Ethan 
Allen, — which  would  have  been  the  same  in  that  of  Montgo 
mery,  had  he  fallen  into  their  hands, — deserves  to  be  visited 
with  the  contrast,  which  is  afforded  in  such  a  trait  as  the  fol 
lowing,  related  by  general  Bourgoyne  in  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  on  the  26th  of  May,  1778. 

"  The  district  of  Saratoga  is  the  property  of  major  general 
Scuyler  of  the  American  troops;  there  were  large  barracks  built 
by  him  which  took  fire,  the  day  after  the  British  army  arrived 
on  the  ground.  General  Scuyler  had  likewise  a  very  good  dwell 
ing-house,  exceeding  large  store-houses,  great  saw-mills,  and 
other  out  buildings,  to  the  value  altogether,  perhaps,  of  10,000/. 
a  few  days  before  the  negotiation  with  general  Gates,  the  enemy 
had  formed  a  plan  to  attack  me;  a  large  column  of  troops  were 
approaching  to  pass  the  small  river,  preparatory  to  a  general 
action,  and  were  entirely  covered  from  the  fire  of  my  artil 
lery  by  those  buildings.  Sir,  I  avow  that  1  gave  the  order  to 
set  them  on  fire:  and  in  a  very  short  time  that  whole  property, 
I  have  described,  was  consumed.  But,  to  show  that  the  per 
son  most  deeply  concerned  in  that  calamity,  did  not  put  the 
construction  upon  it,  which  it  has  pleased  the  honourable  gen 
tleman  to  do,  I  must  inform  the  House,  that  one  of  the  first 
persons  I  saw,  after  the  convention  was  signed,  was  general 
Scuyler.  I  expressed  to  him  my  regret  at  the  event  which 

*  1776. 


200  DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THE 

PART  i.  had  happened,  and  the  reasons  which  had  occasioned  it.  He  de 
-^~v^^  sired  me  to  think  no  more  of  it;  said  the  occasion  justified  it,  ac 
cording  to  the  principles  and  rules  of  war,  and  that  he  should 
have  done  the  same  upon  the  same  occasion,  or  words  to  tha : 
effect.     He  did  more — he  sent  an  aid-de-camp  to  conduct  m< 
to  Albany,  in  order,  as  he  expressed,  to  procure   me  better 
quarters  than  a  stranger  might  be  able  to  mid.     This  gentle 
man  conducted  me  to  a  very  elegant  house,  and  to  my  grea . 
surprise,  presented  me  to  Mrs.  Scuyler  and  her  family;  and 
in  this  general's  house  I  remained  during  my  whole  stay  a: 
Albany,  with  a  table  of  more  than  twenty  covers  for  me  and 
my  friends,  and  every  other  possible  demonstration  of  hospi 
tality." 

7.  I  do  not  wish  to  depreciate  the  value,  or  detract  from 
the  glory,  of  the  exertions  made  by  the  great  champions  of  tho 
American  cause  in  the  British  parliament.  The  Chathams, 
the  Camdens,  the  Shipleys,  and  the  Barres,  were  animated 
by  a  love  of  justice,  and  a  hatred  of  oppression;  and  these 
noble  sentiments  predominated  equally,  in  the  breasts  of  many 
of  our  less  conspicuous  friends  throughout  the  British  nation 
But  nothing  is  more  certain,  than  that  the  opposition,  gene 
rally,  to  the  plans  of  ministers,  had  no  immediate  or  princi 
pal  reference  to  the  rights  and  interests  of  America.  It  arose 
out  of  pre-existing  domestic  divisions;  and  the  parties  mar 
shalled  themselves  accordingly,  in  the  new  dispute — the  torie^ 
and  high  churchmen  on  the  side  of  government;  the  religioui 
dissenters  and  the  assertors  of  the  principles  of  1688,  in  the 
train  of  the  whig-leaders  in  parliament,  candidates  for  place, 
and  invariable  antagonists  of  those  in  possession.  The  old 
combat  was  renewed  with  fresh  fury;  the  oppression  of  America 
served  as  a  battery  for  the  minority;  while  the  treasury-bench 
and  the  dispensers  of  crown  patronage,  made  use  of  the  pro 
spect  of  her  subjection — which  would  open  a  new  exchequer, 
and  a  new  chapter  in  the  red  book, — to  multiply  adherents 
and  fortify  themselves  in  power.  Doubtless,  had  they  accom 
plished  their  object  in  America, — had  their  arms  and  their 
arts  been  successful  in  that  quarter,  with  whatever  havoc  of 
free  institutions,  and  noble  lives,  and  fair  creations  of  manly 
toil — they  would  have  attained  all  their  ends  at  home,  and 
now  flourish  in  British  history,  as  do  the  Clives  and  the  Hast 
ings  in  the  annals  of  the  India-House. 

The  point  is  no  longer  open  to  controversy,  that  the  ministry 
had  a  majority  of  the  British  people  with  them  in  the  begin- 


PEACE   OP    1763.  201 

ning  of  the  war.*  The  British  nation  sanctioned  the  harshest  SECT.  VI. 
measures  of  coercion  through  ignorance  of  the  true  state  of  ^^-v-^' 
the  case,  and  a  blind  pride  of  opinion.  By  degrees,  as  her 
agriculture,  trade,  and  manufactures,  began  to  be  seriously 
affected  by  the  expenses  and  embarrassments  of  the  contest, 
the  classes  dependent  upon  the  prosperity  of  those  branches  of 
industry,  saw  it  in  a  less  favourable  light;  and  passing  from 
private  disagreements  and  expostulations  with  the  ministry,  to 
an  open  approval  of  the  policy  urged  by  an  indefatigable  par 
liamentary  opposition,  determined  the  peace  and  the  recogni 
tion  of  our  independence.  Circumstances  brought  the  affair  to 
public  opinion  in  the  last  resort;  and  that  opinion  yielded  to  a 
calculation  of  profit  and  loss.  No  generous  sentiment  or  broad 
political  reasoning,  mingled  itself  in  fact,  or  had  any  sensible 
influence,  with  the  business-like  deliberation  of  its  arbiters 
and  immediate  instruments.  There  were  none  at  this  crisis, 
as  there  were  none  at  any  antecedent  period,  who  "  hailed  it 
as  an  extension  of  British  honour  and  happiness,  that  great, 
and  happy,  and  independent  communities  of  British  descent, 
should  exist  in  America,  with  the  best  characteristics  of 
British  manners  and  institutions."  In  parliament,  all  voices 
proclaimed  the  emancipation  of  the  colonies  as  an  evil  of  the 
first  magnitude.!  The  question  of  our  independence  had,  at 
the  outset,  to  do  with  the  spirit  of  corruption  and  tyranny  in 

*  The  testimony  of  the  ministerial  party  is  emphatically  positive  on 
this  point.  Lord  North  said  (May  14th,  1777}  "he  might  justly  affirm, 
that  there  was  a  very  great  majority  of  the  nation  at  large,  who  were 
for  prosecuting  the  war  against  their  rebellious  subjects  in  America, 
till  they  should  acknowledge  the  legislative  supremacy  of  parliament." 
So,  Mr.  Jenkinson — (March  17th,  1778) — "  All  degrees  of  people  arose 
in  one  unanimous  resentment,  and  the  war  became  a  popular  war.  I 
say  this  war  with  America  has  been  a  popular  war,"  Sec. 

f  In  the  debate  of  July  10th,  1782,  on  American  Independence,  the 
Earl  of  Shelburne  said, — "  With  respect  to  America,  he  had  always 
considered  her  independence  as  a  great  evil  which  Britain  had  to  dread, 
and  to  guard  against.  He  had  spoken  of  it  in  this  manner  for  years  past, 
and  when  he  believed  he  tvas  joined  in  sentiment  by  every  man  in  the  country. 
He  had  always  believed  and  declared,  that  the  independence  of  Ame 
rica  was  an  evil  as  much  to  be  apprehended  and  dreaded  by  America 
as  by  Britain  !  This  had  always  been  his  opinion;  and  he  had  constantly 
laboured,  by  every  means  in  his  power,  to  persuade  men,  that  this  was 
the  case,  in  his  applications  to  private  men  and  to  public  men,  to  indivi 
duals  and  to  bodies  of  men.  He  wished  to  God,  that  he  had  been  ap 
pointed  to  urge  that  proposition,  and  to  maintain  it  before  congress! 
He  was  one  of  the  last  men  in  the  country  who  had  been  brought  over 
to  agree  that  Britain  ought  to  acknowledge  the  independence  of  Ame 
rica  ;  but  circumstances  he  confessed,  were  changed,  and  he  was  now 
of  opinion  that  it  was  become  a  necessary  evil  which  the  country  must 
pndure  to  avoid  a  greater,"  &c. 

VOL.  I — Co. 


DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THE 

PART  I.  the  cabinet,  and  of  arrogance  and  commercial  monopoly  in  the 
people.  In  the  end,  it  appeared  not  merely  less  dangerous  is 
the  monopoly  than  was  thought,  but  even  likely  to  prove  thfc 
reverse.  This  consideration  abated  the  fierceness  and  acceler 
ated  the  submission,  of  pride,  which  had  finally,  a  severer 
struggle,  in  yielding  to  France  and  Spain.  The  opposition 
leaders  who  succeeded  the  authors  of  the  war  in  the  cabinet, 
were  carried  onward,  irresistibly,  to  the  last  concession,  by  the 
principles  upon  which  they  mounted  to  power,  and  by  the 
course  of  events.  As  regards  the  dispositions  and  personal 
views  of  the  Shelburne  administration,  the  history,  now  fully 
disclosed,  of  the  negotiations  for  peace,  has  left  few  grounds  of 
admiration  or  gratitude. 

8.  It  has  been  said,  and  it  may  be  true,  that,  notwithstand  • 
ing  the  addition  of  one  hundred  millions  sterling  made  to  tho 
British  national  debt,  the  effusion  of  so  much  blood,  the  humi  • 
liation  correlative  to  the  triumph  of  France  and  Spain,  the 
indelible  stains  left  in  the  national  character,  not  a  few 
of  the  English  politicians  finding  the  trade  with  America, 
retained,  and  even  likely  to  be  indefinitely  enlarged,  were 
glad,  and  openly  rejoiced,  that  the  struggle  with  such  potent 
colonies,  foreseen  to  be  inevitable  in  progress  of  time,  had 
ended  on  such  easy  terms.  But  it  is  much  more  certain 
that  with  multitudes  of  all  classes,  the  dismemberment  oi 
the  empire  left  an  ulceration,  "  a  galling  wakefulness,'" 
which  found  relief  only  in  the  most  extravagant  or  malignant 
hopes;  and  that  the  experience  of  the  war  was  lost  upon  the 
majority  of  the  nation,  in  regard  to  the  character  and  destinies 
of  the  colonies.  On  the  conclusion  of  peace,  it  was  confidently 
announced  and  believed,  that  the  confederacy  of  the  States 
would  quickly  be  dissolved;  that  the  forces  of  Great  Britain 
remaining  among  them,  might  be  called  in  to  quell  the  disor 
ders,  which  the  separation  from  the  mother  country  must  pro 
duce;  that  a  second  revolution  would  happen,  and  restore 
them,  penitent  and  submissive,  to  her  dominion.  Indeed,  tc 
induce  them  to  lay  their  independence  at  her  feet,  nothing 
more  would  soon  be  necessary,  than  to  hold  out  the  threat,  oi 
considering  and  treating  them,  as  a  foreign  nation  in  matters 
of  trade.  The  Americans  were  still  cowards,  for  the  Irish  had 
fought  their  battles,  as  well  by  sea  as  by  land;*  and,  at  all 

*  The  modesty  of  this  assertion  was  the  more  remarkable  from  the 
notorious  fact,  that  the  Irish  and  Scotch  troops,  and  the  German  merce 
naries,  formed  the  major  part  of  the  force  which  England  employed1 


PEACE  OP  1763.  203 

events,  if  they  were  not  driven  by  intestine  confusion  and  dis-  SECT.VI. 
tress,  to  return  to  their  allegiance,  Spain  would  involve  them 
in  awful  difficulties,  by  the  claims  she  was  likely  to  prefer  on 
that  part  of  Louisiana  given  up  by  the  treaty. 

Such  were  the  topics  of  consolation  administered  by  writers 
of  authority,  and  greedily  swallowed  by  men  in  office.  Lord 
Sheffield  embodied  them  in  a  pamphlet  soon  after  the  ratifica 
tion  of  the  definitive  treaty,  and  took,  by  general  consent,  the 
station  of  oracle,  which  he  ought  never  to  lose,  so  marvel- 
ously  have  events  confirmed  all  his  opinions,  I  cannot  resist 
the  temptation  of  quoting  some  of  the  most  striking  of  these, 
as  they  show  the  spirit  of  the  times  in  England. — "  It  will  not 
be  an  easy  matter  to  bring  the  American  states  to  act  as  a  na 
tion;  they  are  not  to  be  feared  as  such  by  us."  "We  might  as 
reasonably  dread  the  effects  of  combinations  among  the  Ger 
man,  as  among  the  American  states,  and  deprecate  the  resolves  ^ 
of  the  Diet  as  those  of  Congress."  "  Every  circumstance 
proves  that  it  will  be  extreme  folly  to  enter  into  any  engage 
ments  with  them,  by  which  we  may  not  wish  to  be  bound  here 
after."*  "  There  is  not  a  possibility  that  America  will  main 
tain  a  navy."  "  That  country  concerning  which  writers  of  a 
lively  imagination  have  lately  said  so  much,  is  weakness 
itself. "f  "  It  is  not  probable  the  American  states  will  have  a 
very  free  trade  in  the  Mediterranean;  it  will  not  be  the  interest 
of  any  of  the  great  maritime  powers  to  protect  them  from  the 
Barbary  states.  They  cannot  protect  themselves  from  the 
latter;  they  cannot  pretend  to  a  navy."J  "  The  authority  of 
the  Congress  can  never  be  maintained  over  those  distant  and 
boundless  western  regions,  and  her  nominal  subjects  will 
speedily  imitate  and  multiply  the  examples  of  independence."§ 
"  The  population  of  America  is  not  likely  to  increase  as  it 
has  done,  at  least  on  her  coast. "||  "  There  is  no  country  in 
Europe  which  pays  such  heavy  taxes  as  the  American  states,"1F 
&c. 

Looking  back  to  the  exasperation  and  commotions  which 
were  raised  in  America  by  the  stamp-act,  and  to  the  total 
change  of  the  scene  on  its  repeal,  Mr.  Burke  made  the  just 
remark  that  "so  sudden  a  calm  recovered  after  so  violent  a 

against  the  colonies.  The  ministry  conceived  the  plan  of  hiring  twenty 
thousand  Russians  besides,  to  assist  in  "  fighting  their  battles"  on  this 
continent. 

*  Observations  on  the  Commerce  of  the  United  States,  2d  edition, 
p.  198. 

f  Ibid.  p.  206.  §  Ibid.  p.  190.  «  Ibid.  p.  193 

±  Ibid.  p.  204,  ||  Ibid.  p.  201 


204  DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THE 

PART  I.  storm  was  without  parallel  in  history."  The  colonists  almost 
^^v-^-  universally  vied  in  demonstrations  of  gratitude,  and  glowing 
expressions  of  loyalty,  as  if  the  repeal  had  been  a  spontaneous 
and  inestimable  boon,  and  not  a  retraction,  produced  by  party 
interests,  of  an  impolitic  usurpation.  There  was  something 
not  less  remarkable,  and  admirable,  in  the  transition  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  revolutionary  war.  Notwithstanding  the 
enormity  of  the  provocations  on  which  the  Americans  had 
taken  up  the  sword,  the  severity  of  their  sufferings  during  tht 
struggle,  and  the  vindictive  and  ruthless  character  of  the  hos 
tilities  waged  against  them,  the  tide  of  their  affections  turner 
rapidly  towards  the  mother  country,*  and  the  policy  of  re 
newing  with  her,  the  closest  and  most  liberal  relations  com 
patible  with  independence,  received  the  sanction  of  a  large 
majority  throughout  the  confederation. 

Taking  the  representations  of  the  British  writers  themselves 
concerning  the  merits  of  the  dispute  so  solemnly  terminated, 
it  is  impossible  to  imagine  a  case,  in  which  natural  duty,  re 
tribu'ive  justice,  and  the  common  good,  more  plainly  exacted 
from  the  other  side,,  more  even  than  a  mere  correspondence  of 
sentiment?  arid  views.     And  yet  what  a  contrast!  as  proved  by 
Tiie  vogue  of  Sheffield's  writings  and  doctrines,  and  from  such 
statements  as  the  following,  made  in  1784,  by  his  ablest  an- 
tagonist.f 

"  It  is  sufficient,  at  this  time,  to  support  an  opinion  of  the 
propriety  of  endeavouring  to  restore  our  broken  connexion  with 
America,  by  those  conciliatory  means,  which  best  tend  to  re 
gain  the  affections  of  a  people,  from  whom  we  have  derived, 
and  from  whom  we  may  yet  derive,  the  most  solid  benefits,  to 
be  deemed  the  sacrificers  of  the  interests  of  Great  Britain  to 
those  of  America.  However  laudable,  however  necessary  the 
pursuit,  there  is  a  prejudice  among  us  arising  from  intemperate 
passion,  and  the  vexation  of  disappointment,  that  precludes, 
obstructs,  or,  in  some  shape  or  other,  ultimately  destroys  it." 

It  would  lead  me  too  far  to  detail  the  facts  which  have 
rendered  unquestionable  and  notorious,  the  continued  pre 
valence  of  those  unworthy  dispositions,  and  the  steady  pro 
secution  of  a  scheme  of  action  in  itself  demonstrative  of 
their  inveteracy.  I  could  produce  British  authority  on  this 

*  This  is  not,  indeed,  the  opinion  of  Judge  Marshall  (Life  of  Wash 
ington,  vol.  v.  p.  355);  but  it  is  proved,  by  the  victory  gained  for  the 
politics  most  favourable  to  Great  Britain  in  all  respects. 

f  Champion— "  Considerations  on  the  present  situation  of  Great 
Britain,"  London,  &c. 


PEACE  OP  1763.  205 

head,  in  the  shape  of  direct  confessions  and   self-reproof,  SECT.  vi. 
conveyed   in    books    and   parliamentary   debates,    for    every  V^N^^/ 
consecutive  year  from  the  peace  of  1782  to  the  present  time. 
From  the  abundance  of  this  kind  of  testimony,  I  will  take,  at 
random,  some  few  morsels  which  no  third  party  at  least,  will 
reject  as  invalid,  and  which  shall  have  relation  to  periods  so 
recent  as  1808,  and  1812. 

"  In  England,1'  says  Mr.  Baring,  "  our  insensible  mono 
poly  of  the  American  trade  does  not  appear  ever  to  have  been 
properly  appreciated:  the  events  of  a  civil  war  left  naturally 
deeper  impressions  on  the  unsuccessful  than  the  successful 
party,  and  while  every  little  state  of  Europe  was  courted,  that 
afforded  limited  markets  for  our  manufactures,  we  seemed  to  ^ 
regret  that  we  owed  any  thing  to  our  former  subjects;  and  an  M 
increasing  commercial  intercourse  has  been  carried  on  under 
feelings  of  unsubdued  enmity,  of  which  the  government,  instead 
of  checking  sentiments  as  void  of  common  sense  as  of  magna 
nimity,  has  rather  set  the  fashion.  To  this  error,  in  my  opi 
nion,  the  present  state  of  the  public  mind  towards  America  is  . 
in  a  great  measure  owing.  Her  success  and  prosperity,  * 
though  we  dare  not  fairly  avow  it,  have  displeased  us,  a 
sentiments  have  been  imperceptibly  encouraged  towards  her 
as  ungenerous  as  they  are  impolitic."* 

"  I  know,"  said  Mr.  Brougham,  in  parliament,  in  1812, 
"  the  real  or  affected  contempt  with  which  some  persons  in 
this  country  treat  our  kinsmen  of  the  West.  I  fear  some 
aflgry  and  jealous  feelings  have  survived  our  more  intimate  * 
connexion  with  them, — feelings  engendered  by  the  event  of  its 
termination,  but  which,  it  would  be  wiser,  as  well  as  more 
manly  to  forget." 

"  No  small  part  of  the  English  nation,"  says  the  Edinburgh 
Review,  "  looik  with  feelings  of  peculiar  hostility  towards  the 
people  to  which  they  bear  the  nearest  resemblance,  and  wil 
lingly  abet  their  rulers  in  treating  them  with  less  respect  and  I 
less  cordiality  than  any  other  nation.  Neither  the  government  \ 
nor  the  populace  of  this  country  have  forgiven  America  for 
having  made  herself  independent;  and  the  lowest  calumnies  and 
grossest  abuse  are  daily  employed  by  a  court-faction  to  keep 
alive  the  most  vulgar  prejudices.— (No.  23.  1809.)  "  The 
Americans  asserted  their  independence  upon  principles  which 
they  derived  from  us. — Their  rebellion  was  the  surest  proof 
of  their  genuine  descent.  They  are  descended  from  our  loins 

*  Inquiry  into  the  Causes  and  Consequences  of  the  Orders  in  Coun 
cil.  1808.  p.  19. 


206 


DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THL 


PART  i.  — they  retain  our  usages  and  manners — they  read  our  books— 

^*~v^+s  they  have  copied  our  freedom — they  rival  our  courage — and 

yet  they  are  less  popular  and  less  esteemed  among  us  than  the 

base  and  bigoted  Portuguese,  and  the  ferocious  and  ignorant 

Russians." 

"  There  is  not  an  individual  who  has  attended  at  all  to  the 
progress  of  the  present  dispute  with  America,  (1812)  who 
does  not  see  that  it  was  embittered  from  the  first,  and  wantonly 
urged  to  its  present  fatal  issue,  by  the  insolent,  petulant,  and 
preposterous  tone  of  those  very  individuals  who  insisted  upon 
that  miserable  experiment — and  plunged  their  own  country  in 
wretchedness,  only  to  bring  down  upon  it  the  reluctant  hos 
tility  of  its  best  customers  and  allies,"  &c. 

9.  The  reign  of  Lord  Sheffield's  sapient  opinions,  was  natu 
rally  prolonged  in  Great  Britain,  by  the  comparative  insignifi 
cance  of  the  military  and  naval  establishments  of  the  United 
States  under  the  federal  administration;  their  total  disarray 
after  its  overthrow;  the  simplicity  of  their  institutions,  and  the 
vehement  altercations  of  the  parties  into  which  they  were 
thrown.     It  became  anew   a  common  belief  and  fond  hope 
with  the  ministerial  politicians,  that  America  might  yet  be  re 
gained  by  arms  or  by  arts;  and  even  those  of  the  opposition 
settled  down  in  a  contemptuous  commiseration  of  her  weak 
ness  and  sinister  destinies.    The  rencontre  of  the  Chesapeake 
and  Leopard  made  it  quite  certain,  for  all  parties,  that  the 
Americans  were  cowards;  that  the  Irish  had  fought  their 
battles  in  the  revolution;  and  that  there  was  only  food  for  mer 
riment  or  pity  in  the  idea  of  their  meeting,  at  sea,  British 
skill  and  valour.     The  Edinburgh  Review  told  confidently 
of u  the  feeble  and  shadowy  texture  of  the  federal  govern 
ment;"* — it  had  u  little  hopes  of  a  system  of  polity  which,  in 
,an  advancing  society,  offered  no  prizes  to  talents,  and  no  dis 
tinctions  to  wealth ;"f  and  foresaw  that  "  the  slender  tie  which 
held  the  United  States  together  would  burst  at  once  in 
tumult  of  war."J     *n   1809,  the   same  journal,  professing 
always  superior  liberality  and  closeness  of  observation,  as  to 
our  affairs,  discoursed  of  us  in  the  following  strain:  |  As  it  is 
quite  impossible  to  have  too  much  jealousy  of  France,  so,  to 
wards  America  we  can  scarcely  have  too  little.     When  such 
reasoners  as  Mr.  Leckie,  gravely  talk  of  our  being   insulted 
by  the  Porte,  we  plainly  perceive  the  errors  of  a  man  who 
lias  lived  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  Turks,  until 

flbid.  *  No.  24 


PEACE  OF  1763.  207 

he  has  forgotten  their  insignificance.     But  when  France  is  SECT  VI. 
stretching  her  iron  coasts  on  all  sides  of  us, — when  her  fleets  -^^v^s 
and  her  camps  are  within  sight — and  we  alone,  of  all  Europe, 
have  not  been  conquered  by  her  arms; — it  is  almost  as  ridicu 
lous  to  be  jealous  of  America  as  of  Turkey — of  a  nation  three 
thousand  miles  off — scarcely  kept  together  by  the  weakest 
government  in  the  world, — with  no  army,  and  half  a  dozen 
frigates — and  knowing  no  other  means  of  intercourse  with 
other  countries  than  by  peaceful  commerce."*  i 

In  1812,  Mr.  Brougham  struck  the  same  key  in  parliament, 
md  displayed  an  equal  mastery  of  his  subject. 

"  Jealousy  of  America!  whose  armies  are  yet  at  the  plough, 
or  making,  since  your  policy  has  willed  it  so,  awkward 
(though  improving)  attempts  at  the  loom — whose  assembled  na 
vies  could  not  lay  siege  to  an  English  sloop  of  war: — Jealousy 
of  a  power  which  is  necessarily  peaceful  as  well  as  weak,  but 
which,  if  it  had  all  the  ambition  of  France  and  her  armies  to 
back  it,  and  all  the  navy  of  England  to  boot,  nay,  had  it  the 
lust  of  conquest  which  marks  your  enemy,  and  your  armies 
as  well  as  navy  to  gratify  it — is  placed  at  so  vast  a  distance 
as  to  be  perfectly  harmless!  and  this  is  the  nation,  of  which, 
for  our  honour's  sake,  we  are  desired  to  cherish  a  perpetual  ^ 
jealousy,  for  the  ruin  of  our  best  interests."! 

The  Quarterly  Review  scarcely  deigned  even  to  pass  a  jest 
upon  the  impotency  of  the  states,  and  would  not/"  stoop  to  de 
grade  the  British  navy  by  condescending  to  enter  into  any 
comparison  between  the  high  order,  the  discipline,  and  com* 
fort,  of  an  English  man-of-war,  and  an  American  frigate jr 
it  "  disdained  any  such  comparison."!  This  high  disdain  of 
all  the  belligerant  capacities  of  America  pervaded,  not  only 
the  royal  councils,  but  the  whole  British  naval  and  military 
service.  In  the  first  rencontre  at  sea,  the  Alert,  with  20  guns 
mounted,  bore  down  triumphantly  upon  the  American  frigate 
Essex,  and  fired  a  broadside,  expecting  to  prove  that  lt  the 
assembled  navies  of  America  could  not  lay  siege  to  an  Eng 
lish  sloop  of  war:"  and  though  the  issue  gave  an  air  of  para- 
logy  to  the  business,  yet  it  was  soon  followed  by  an  instance  of 
the  same  happy  confidence  in  the  case  of  the  frigate  Guerriere. 

I  must  do  the  two  oracular  journals  which  I  have  quoted  on 
this  head,  the  justice  to  remark,  that,  at  the  end  of  the  con 
test,  although  they  omitted  to  remind  their  readers  of  their 

*  No.  24. 

{•  Speech  on  the  present  state  of  Commerce  and  Manufactures. 
No.  15.  Article  on  Madison's  War 


208  DISPOSITIONS  FROM  THE 

PART  1.  first  opinions,  they  did  not  pass  by  the  perplexing  facts  in  ab 
v^-v'^w  solute  sjJence.     The  Quarterly  Review  could  condescend  t(> 
say,  '/The  Americans  have  fought  on  the  element  of  Eng 
land  with  British  spirit.     On  that  element,  let  it  be  fairly  ac 
knowl  edged,  we  have  much  to  commend  in  them,  and  we  havt 
still  something  to  redeem."*     Even  before  the  termination  o;' 
hostilities,  the  Edinburgh  Review  told  of  u  the  discomfiture 
of  the  English  naval  resources  by  the  American  marine,  o :.' 
which,   by  a  whimsical  coincidence,  we  have  learnt  the  ex 
istence  in  the  same  documents  that  detail  its  successes."  Ane 
speedily  came  out  the  round,  unvarnished  tale:  ^ 

/*  We  have  been  worsted  in  most  of  our  naval  encounters 
with  the  Americans,  and  baffled  in  most  of  our  enterprises  by 
land — with  a  naval  force  on  their  coast,  exceeding  that  of  th< 
enemy  in  the  proportion  often  to  one,  we  have  lost  two  out  o:' 
three,  of  all  the  sea-fights  in  which  we  have  been  engaged — 
and  at  least  three  times  as  many  men  as  our  opponent;  while 
their  privateers  swarm  unchecked  round  all  our  settlements 
and  even  on  the  coast  of  Europe,  and  have  already  madem-iz* 
of  more  than  seventeen  hundred  of  our  merchant  vessels.*! 

ft  is  true,  and  detracts  a  little  from  the  force  of  these  ac 
knowledgments,  that  we  read  in  the  same  number  of  the  Jour 
nal—^-'4  the  national  vanity  of  the  Americans  has  scarcely  any 
other  field  of  triumph  than  the  discomfiture  of  Britain  in  the 
war  of  the  Revolution. "^  We  might  produce,  by  way  of  re 
joinder,  perhaps,  from  the  same  hand,  out  of  a  number  of 
passages  implying  the  existence  of  other  fields  of  triumph,  tht 
following;, 

"  History  has  no  other  example  of  so  happy  an  issue  to  a 
revolution  consummated  by  a  long  civil  war,  as  that  of  the 
Americans.  Indeed,  it  seems  to  be  very  near  a  maxim  in 
political  philosophy,  that  a  free  government  cannot  be  obtain 
ed,  where  a  long  employment  of  military  force  is  necessary  to 
establish  it.  In  the  case  of  America,  however,  the  military 
power  was  disarmed  by  that  very  influence  which  makes  a 
revolutionary  army  so  formidable  to  liberty;  for  the  images  of 
grandeur  and  power — those  meteor  lights,  which  are  exhaled 
in  the  stormy  atmosphere  of  a  revolution,  to  allure  the  ambi 
tious  and  dazzle  the  weak — made  no  impression  upon  the- 
firm  and  virtuous  soul  of  the  American  commander.":): 

"  In  the  United  States,  M.  Talleyrand  was  surprised  to 
observe,  that  a  long  and  violent  civil  war  had  left  scarcely  an) 
trace  of  its  existence  in  the  character  of  the  intercourse  of 


No.  30.  |  No.  48.  *  No.  25. 


PEACE  OF  1763.  209 

the  various  factions  which  divided  the  people.     No  hatred  or  SECT. VI. 
animosity  was  perceivable  among  individuals;  no  turbulence  ^^-^^^ 
or  agitation  of  character  had  been  permanently  engrafted  on 
the  sober,   solid  habits  of  the  colonists.     The  profound  re 
mark  of  Machiavel  appeared  for  once  to  fail,  that  every  revo 
lution  contains  the  seeds  of  another,  and  scatters  them  behind 
it."* 

"  The  spectacle  presented  by  America  during  the  last  thirty 
or  forty  years,  ever  since  her  emancipation  began  to  produce 
its  full  effect,  and  since  she  fairly  entered  the  lists  as  an  in 
dependent  nation — has  been,  beyond  every  thing  formerly 
known  in  the  history  of  mankind,  imposing  and  instructive."! 

Dr.  Seybert  has  introduced  into  his  Statistics  a  compendious 
statement  of  the  naval  events  of  the  war,  which  furnishes  an 
edifying  commentary  upon  the  first  speculations  of  the  British 
politicians. 

"  The  American  navy  triumphed  in  fourteen  engagements, 
in  some  of  which,  the  contending  forces  were  nearly  equal, 
and  in  many  of  them  that  of  the  enemy  was  decidedly  supe 
rior.  The  cases  of  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Argus  are  the  only 
instances  in  which  it  can  be  pretended  that  the  enemy  had  any 
fair  claims  to  success,  upon  the  ground  of  the  equality  of  the 
respective  forces. 

"  The  superiority  of  our  gunnery  is  confirmed  by  the  num 
ber  of  killed  and  wounded  on  board  the  enemy's  vessels,  and 
the  condition  of  their  ships  afte"r  the  actions;  in  several  in 
stances  the  British  vessels  were  sunk  whilst  the  fight  lasted: 
in  most  instances  they  were  so  materially  injured  as  to  make 
their  destruction  absolutely  necessary;  whereas  our  vessels 
were  commonly,  with  scarcely  any  loss  of  time,  ready  to  com 
mence  another  combat." 

The  number  of  British  merchant  vessels  captured  by  the 
Americans,  and  which  arrived  in  port  or  were  destroyed,  is 
determined,  by  an  irrefragable  estimate,^  to  amount  to  five 
thousand  five  hundred;  more,  in  all  probability,  than  Britain 
lost  in  all  the  wars  which  grew  out  of  the  French  revolution. 

Much  clamour,  it  may  be  recollected,  was  raised  in  England, 
concerning  the  real  amount  of  force  of  the  American  ships, 
compared  with  the  nominal.  But  we  may  judge  with  what 
grace  this  charge  was  so  indignantly  made,  by  the  following 
statement  which  I  copy  from  the  Regulations  relative  to  the 
Royal  Navy,  officially 'promulgated  in  1817. 

*  No.  11.  -j-  No.  59. 

i  See  that  very  useful  work— Niles'  Weekly  Register,  for  Jan.  1816. 

VOL.  I. — D  d 


/ 
/of 


210  DISPOSITIONS    FROM    THE,  &C. 

PART  r.  "  All  ships  of  the  second  rate,  though  rated  at  98,  carry 
****r^~^/  upwards  of  100  guns, 

u  In  the  third  rate,  some  of  the  ships  rated  at  80  guns, 
carry  near  90,  and  others  rated  at  74,  carry  80  guns. 

u  In  the  fourth  rate,  of  the  ships  rated  at  50  guns,  one  class 
(that  on  two  decks)  carries  58  guns;  another  (that  on  one  deck) 
carries  60  and  upwards. 

"  The  frigates  rated  at  40  guns,  carry  50;  and  those  rated 
at  38,  carry  46  and  upwards. 

"  The  majority  of  those  rated  at  36,  carry  44;  and  some  of 
those  rated  at  32,  carry  46  and  48;  being  more  than  others 
that  are  rated  at  38  and  36. 

u  Similar  differences  between  the  real  and  the  nominal 
amount  of  force  exists  in  the  fifth  rate,  but  it  is  unnecessary  to 
specify  the  details." 

in  the  article  on  Michaud's  Travels  in  America,  our  friends 
f  the  Edinburgh  Review  remarked  of  the  western  Ameri 
cans,  with  a  mixture  of  contempt  and  compassion  —  "their 
generals  distil  brandy,  their  colonels  keep  tavern,  and  their 
statesmen  feed  pigs."  But  it  was  discovered,  by  the  progress 
of  events,  that  these  generals  and  colonels  could,  notwith 
standing,  pursue  the  occupation  implied  by  their  titles;  and  the 
affairs  of  Plattsburg  and  New  Orleans  confounded  the  critics. 
"We  have  actually  had  to  witness  the  incredible  spectacle  of 
a  regular  well  appointed  army  of  British  veterans,  retiring  be 
fore  little  more  than  an  equal  force  of  American  militia!'' 

The  whole  result  of  the  war  on  the  land,  to  which  the  gene 
rals  that  distil  brandy,  and  the  colonels  that  feed  pigs,  largely 
contributed,  must  have  astonished  them  still  more.  An  aggre 
gate  loss  of  nearly  twelve  thousand  of  his  majesty's  troops, 
and  the  inefficiency  of  a  force  of  fifty  thousand  regulars  ope 
rating  at  one  time!  And,  with  respect  to  the  statesmen  who  feed 
pififs,  there  must  have  been  a  lively  surprise,  and  some  altera 
tion  of  sentiment,  when  the  Marquis  Wellesley  was  found 
declaring  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that,  "in  his  opinion,  the 
American  Commissioners  at  Ghent  had  shown  the  most  asto 
nishing  superiority  over  the  British  during  the  whole  of  the 
correspondence;  and  that  he  had  little  doubt  the  British  papers 
were  communicated  from  the  common  fund  of  the  ministers 
in  England."*  / 

*  Speech  respecting  the  Negotiation  for  Peace  with  America,  April 
18th,  1815. 


SECTION  VII. 


OF  THE  HOSTILITIES  OF  THE  BRITISH  REVIEWS. 

1.  AFTER  the  Revolution  of  1688,  and  still  more  after  the  SEC.vn. 
establishment  of  the  House  of  Hanover,  the  North  American  v^^w 
Colonies  preferred  titles  of  a  peculiar  force,  to  the  highest 
esteem  and  favour  of  every  Briton,  who  respected  and  loved 
the  principles,  with  which  those  events  were  connected.  They 
had  been  obnoxious  to  the  despotic  plans  of  the  Stuarts,  and 
suffered  from  their  tyranny;  they  had  asserted  the  rights  pro 
claimed  in  Magna  Charta,  with  more  boldness,  and  maintain 
ed  them  with  more  success,  than  the  mother  country;  they 
had  limited  the  ravages,  and  disappointed  the  voracity,  of  des 
potism  and  corruption,  by  furnishing  a  secure  asylum  for  the 
persecuted,  as  well  as  the  distressed  from  whatever  cause.* 
On  these  grounds,  and  the  many  others  developed  in  the  fore 
going  pages,  their  merits  might  be  supposed  to  be  almost  in 
finite  with  every  English  whig  of  the  last  fifty  years;  so  great, 
at  least,  as  to  make  it,  for  one  of  the  present  day,  not  only  a  , 
perversion  of  natural  feeling,  but  a  political  apostacy,  to  treat 
of  their  character  and  concerns,  except  upon  a  system  of  the 
utmost  liberality  and  indulgence.  Chatham  and  Charles 
Fox  had  given  them  an  irresistible  claim  to  his  gratitude  and 
respect,  in  ascribing  to  their  revolt  the  salvation  of  the  British 
Constitution.  "  The  resistance  of  the  Americans  to  the  op 
pressions  of  the  mother  country,"  said  the  last  of  those  cano 
nized  statesmen,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  "  has  undoubt 
edly  preserved  the  liberties  of  mankind." 

Our  revolution,  in  its  motive,  conduct,  and  conclusion, 
united  in  its  favour  the  suffrages  of  the  most  enlightened  por 
tion  of  continental  Europe;  and  there  has  been  of  late  years 
hardly  an  individual  in  England,  holding  a  certain  rank  in  the 
literary  or  political  world,  who  has  ventured,  directly  to  deny 
it,  the  most  exalted  characteristics.  The  writers  of  the  Quar 
terly  Review  have,  indeed,  seemed  to  refuse  it  all  the  felicity 
with  which  it  had  been  invested  by  others,  in  asserting  that, 
"  when  America  became  independent,  she  had  no  race  of  edu- 

*  See  note  N. 


HOSTILITIES    OF    THE 

PART  I.  cated  i$en  to  fill  the  situations  which  used  to  be  respected,'7* 
'  but  ev£n  they,  the  official  guardians  of  tory  principles,  preju 
dices,  and  interests,  have  yielded  to  it  a  tribute  of  no  trifling 
import.  "The  anglo- Americans,  an  active  and  enlightened 
people,  animated  by  the  spirit  and  information  derived  from 
their  mother  country,  contended,  as  they  had  done  in  the  pre 
ceding  century,  with  pertinacious  zeal,  for  a  civil  right,  the 
grant  of  which,  in  the  early  part  of  the  contest,  might  have 
restored  their  tranquillity  and  preserved  their  allegiance. 
Happily  for  them,  their  patriots  were  not  atheists,  nor  their 
leaders  robbers;  their  men  of  properly,  education,  and  morals, 
took  the  lead,  and  the  physical  power  of  the  poor  and  the 
profligate  was  not  set  up  to  plunder,  to  expatriate,"!  &c.  There 
is  here  enough  of  positive  and  negative  praise,  to  induce  us  to 
impute  the  declaration  first  quoted,  to  an  honest  belief  that  all  dur 
educated  men  had  perished  in  the  course  of  the  revolution  !\ 

The  North  American   settlements  presented,    from  their 
commencement,  what   was   pre-eminently  calculated  to  en 
gage  the  affections,  and  kindle  the  benevolence,  of  the  Chris 
tian  and  the  philanthropist,  in  the  rapid  and  extensive  con 
quests  made  on  the  wilderness,  for  religion  and  civilization. 
Clothing  the  desert  with  beauty  and  reclaiming  it  to  fruitful- 
ness;  enlarging  indefinitely  the  boundaries  of  polished  nature, 
and  opening  the  way  for  the  existence  of  millions  of  freemen 
of  the  English  race  over  one  of  the  most  favoured  portions  of 
the  earth,  were  achievements  which,  with  all  their  dignity  and 
value,  did  not  more  powerfully  recommend  our  American  fore 
fathers  to  the  favour  and  protection  of  the  good  and  the  wise, 
than  the  motives  from  which  they  were  undertaken,  and  the 
manner  in  which  they  were  performed.     "  There  was  no  cor 
ner  of  the  globe,"  exclaimed  Chatham,  "  to  which  the  ances 
tors  of  our  fellow  subjects  in  America,  would  not  have  fled, 
rather  than  submit  to  the  slavish  and  tyrannical  spirit  which 
prevailed   in  their  native  country."     Of  such  men,  no  Eng 
lishman  boasting  of  his  attachment  to  the  present  theory  of 
the  British  constitution,  should,  to  be  consistent,  think  or 
speak  without  a  glow  of  admiration.     And  we,  their  suc 
cessors,  whose  spirit,  as  far  at  least  as  liberty  is  concerned, 
cannot  be  said  to  have  degenerated   from  theirs;  who  have 
preserved  their  institutions,  and  continued  their  labours,    so 
as,  with  similar  dangers  and  toils,  to  bring  under  the  dominion 
of  Christianity  and  civilized  art,  regions  immense  beyond  the 


*  No.  4.     Article  on  Holmes'  American  Annals. 
|  Article  on  Spain  and  her  colonies. 


BRITISH    REVIEWS.  213 

grasp  6T  their  imagination — we,  constituting  now  a  republic  SEC.VH. 
of  u  ten  millions  of  British  freemen,  who  may  be  numbered  \^~*^*s 
among  the  most  intelligent,  the  most  moral,  the  bravest,  and 
the  most  happy,  of  the  human  race"* — might  well  expect,  as 
we  deserve,  to  find  in  the  philosophers  and  whigs  of  the  mother 
country,  even  though  of  the  class  of  critics  by  profession,  not 
scoffers  and  detracters,  but  earnest  friends  and  panegyrists. 
The  Scottish  tribunal  that  sits  in  constant  judgment  over  us, 
by  virtue  of  a  mysterious  authority,  seems  to  have  been  aware 
of  our  claims  in  some  of  the  respects  upon  which  I  have 
touched.  Such  language  as  the  following,  from  the  thirteenth 
number  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  is  in  unison  with  reason 
and  true  sentiment,  and  will  make  the  reproach  double,  if  we 
should  find  those  who  uttered  it,  acting  in  contradiction  to  its 
spirit. 

iuThis  immense  sphere  of  activity  in  America,  is  the  crea- 
n  of  yesterday.  Even  Mr.  Ashe,  disposed  as  he  is  to  decry 
every  thing  American,  is  obliged  to  admit,  that  she  displays, 
in  the  wonders  of  her  growing  industry,  a  picture  at  once 
striking  and  exhilarating.  It  is  impossible  to  contemplate  such 
a  scene  without  exulting  in  the  triumphs  of  industry.  This 
peaceful  power  is  here  subduing  regions  of  growing  forests, 
which  conquering  armies  would  fear  to  enter;  and  extending, 
with  silent  rapidity,  the  limits  of  civilized  existence.  We 
cannot  help  wishing  that  our  countrymen,  in  general,  were  a 
little  more  alive  to  the  feelings  which  we  conceive  such  a  spec 
tacle  is  calculated  to  excite;  and  that  they  could  be  brought  to 
sympathize  a  little  more  in  the  progress  of  a  kindred  people, 
destined  to  carry  our  language,  our  arts,  and  our  interests  too, 
over  regions  more  vast  than  ever  acknowledged  the  sway  of 
the  Caesars  of  Rome."  \ 

Notwithstanding  this  jJst  and  obvious  view  of  the  case;  the 
commercial  obligations  of  which  I  have  treated;  and  all  the 
ingratiating  points  of  our  history,  with  which  the  better  in 
formed  among  the  British  writers  cannot  be  supposed  to  be 
unacquainted,  the  United  States  have  invariably  experienced 
from  them  more  obloquy  and  ridicule,  than  the  nations  of  the 
European  continent,  the  farthest  removed  from  Great  Britain 
in  their  origin,  institutions,  policy,  knowledge,  and  moral 
qualities.  There  has  been  no  period  since  our  revolution  at 
which  a  liberal  Briton,  looking  to  the  comparative  treatment 
of  the  Americans,  in  the  British  books  and  parliamentary  dis- 

*  Sir  James  Mackintosh.  Speech  on  the  Treaty  with  America,  April 
llth,  1815. 


214  HOSTILITIES    OP   THE 

PART  I.  cussions,  might  not  have  repeated  what  Mr.  Burke  indignant!) 
^^^-^^  uttered  in  1775 — "The  faults  which  grow  out  of  the  luxuriance 
of  freedom,  appear  much  more  shocking  to  us,  than  the  base 
vires  which  are  generated  in  the  rankness  of  servitude."  The 
periodical  publications  have  served  as  constant  emunctories 
for  those  humours,  respecting  the  diffusiveness  and  virulence 
of  which,  I  have  already  produced  adequate  testimony.  It  is 
to  the  language  and  temper,  of  some  of  the  most  important  oi 
those  publications,  that  I  mean  to  direct  my  attention  at  pre 
sent.  I  propose  to  fill  up  this  Section  with  quotations  of  their 
invidious  suggestions,  and  with  cursory  observations  upon  such 
of  these  as  seem  to  call  for  immediate  notice. 

2.  The  Edinburgh  and  Quarterly  Reviews, — confessed!} 
at  the  head  of  all  publications  of  the  kind  in  the  world,  ant 
works  of  great  authority  wherever  letters  are  cultivated,— 
have  taken  the  lead  in  the  war  of  defamation  and  derision 
against  the  American  people  and  institutions.  They  have 
indeed,  carried  opposite  ensigns,  and  made  their  attacks  ii 
modes  somewhat  dissimilar.  The  hostilities  of  the  English 
critics  have  been  more  direct  and  coarse,  and  accompanied 
with  fewer  professions  of  moderation  and  good  will;  those  oi 
the  Scottish,  having  been  waged,  almost  always  with  protesta 
tions  of  friendship,  and  at  times  with  the  affectation  o|  a  for 
mal  defence  of  the  object./  When  the  one  has  said,*-J-u  pro 
fessing  ourselves  among  the  number  of  persons  who  experience 
no  very  particular  degree  of  affection  for  our  transatlantic 
brethren;"  and  the  other — "the  Americans  are  not  liked  in  this 
country,  and  we  are  not  now  going  to  recommend  them  as  ob 
jects  of  our  love ;  "  we  are  no  admirers  of  the  Americans  ;"f 

*  Quarterly.     No.  24. 

•j-  The  pliant  Bosvvell  set  the  example  to  his  countrymen,  of  this  form 
of  speech,  adding-,  however,  a  maxim  which  they  seem  to  have  over 
looked.  "Well  do  you  know  that  I.  have  no  kindness  for  the  Bosto 
nians.  But  nations  or  bodies  of  men  should,  as  well  as  individuals, 
have  a  fair  trial,  and  not  be  condemned  on  character  alone,."  (Letter  to 
Dr.  Johnson,  Jan.  27,  1775).  The  Quarterly  Review  has  preferred  the 
more  energetic  spirit  and  sousing  manner  of  the  Dr.  himself;  of  which 
a  sample  is  afforded  in  the  following1  passage  of  his  Biography.  "  From  ;i 
pleasing  subject,"  says  Boswell,  "he  (Dr.  Johnson)  I  know  not  how  01 
why,  made  a  sudden  transition  to  one  upon  which  he  was  a  violent 
aggressor;  for  he  said,  "I  am  willing  to  love  all  mankind,  except  at' 
American:"  and  his  inflammable  corruption  bursting  into  horrid  fire- 
he  "breathed  out  threatenings  and  slaughter;"  Cjdling  them,  "Rascal1 
— Robbers — Pirates;"  and  exclaiming,  he'd  "burn  and  destroy  them." 
Miss  Seward,  looking  to  him  with  mild  but  steady  astonishment,  said 
"  Sir,  this  is  an  instance  that  we  are  always  most  violent  against  tlios* 


BRITISH  REVIEWS, 


215 


they  approached  near  enough  in  language  to  betray  the  iden-  SFC.  vil. 
tity  of  their  spirit.  Both  have  canted  about  the  tender  for-  l*^~*^s 
bearance  due  on  the  two  sides  of  the  Atlantic — "the  sacred 
bond  of  blood  and  language;1'  "the  endearing  community  of 
religion  and  laws;"  "the  inheritance  of  the  same  principles 
of  government  and  morals  ;"  "the  beauty  of  the  example  of 
natural  friends  among  nations,  in  contradistinction  to  the  too 
readily  admitted  division  of  natural  enemies,"  &^. — and  they 
have  harped  upon  these  topics,  in  the  sequel  of  a  tissue  of  the 
bitterest  contumelies  and  sarcasms.  But  the  Edinburgh  Re 
view  particularly,  has  gone  farther,  with  a  modesty  which  is 
truly  unrivalled.  Whilst  uttering  the  most  disparaging  opi 
nions,  and  discharging  vollies  of  sneers,  it  has  inveighed  fiercely 
against  "  the  bitter  sneering  at  every  thing  in  America"  by 
the  ministerial  writers:  reproached  them  for  their  insolent, 
petulant  and  preposterous  tone;  wondered  profoundly  at  the 
little  cordiality  and  respect  for  America  among  the  British 
nation;  and  seemed  to  take  to  itself  vast  credit  for  the  con 
trary  dispositions. 

Recently,  it  has  furnished  an  instance  of  this  manoeuvre, 
which  outstrips  all  competition,  and  has  the  air  of  a  wanton 
mockery  of  the  understandings  of  its  readers,  as  much  as  of  a 
device  of  party-strategy.  In  the  body  of  that  article  of  the 
61st  number,  which  contains  the  heaviest  denunciations,  and 
some  of  the  most  flippant  undersaving,  ever  directed  against 
this  country,  we  read  the  following  phrases,  the  first  of  which 
is,  by  the  way,  a  fine  specimen  of  purism  in  style.  "  Among 
other  faults  with  which  the  present  English  government  is 
chargeable,  the  vice  of  impertinence  has  lately  crept  into  our 
Cabinet;  and  the  Americans  have  been  treated  with  ridicule 
and  contempt."  "We  wish  well  to  America;  we  rejoice  in 
her  prosperity,  and  are  delighted  to  resist  the  absurd  imperti 
nence  with  which  the  character  of  her  people  is  often  treated  in 
this  country,  but,"  &c. 

I  have  already  given,  in  the  quotations  which  I  have  made, 
some  evidence  of  the  validity  of  these  pretensions,  and  of  the 
temper  and  consistency  of  the  Quarterly  Review.  But  we 
have  not,  perhaps,  had  enough  exactly  to  determine,  the  degree 
of  authority  to  which  the  two  bands  of  critics  are  respectively 
entitled,  in  their  judgments  concerning  America;  whether  on 
the  score  of  liberality  in  their  feelings,  gravity  in  their  deli 
berations,  or  steadiness  in  their  opinions  I  will,  therefore, 

whom  we  have  injured." — He  was  irritated  still  more  by  this  delicate 
and  keen  reproach  ;  and  roared  out  another  tremendous  volley,  which 
one  mig'ht  fancy  could  he  heard  across  the  Atlantic."  (Vol.  ii.  p.  12.) 


HOSTILITIES  OP  THE 

PART  I.  look  back  upon  the  complexion  of  the  articles  which  the) 
*^~v^**f/  have  devoted  to  us,  pursuing  the  design  which  I  have  men 
tioned  above.  To  begin  with  the  Edinburgh  critics,  those 
friends  and  patrons  by  pre-eminence,  who  have  always  beeii 
"  delighted  to  resist  the  absurd  impertinence  with  which  the 
character  of  America  has  been  treated  in  Great  Britain." 

They  condescended  to  notice  this  republic  directly,  for 
the  first  time,  in  their  fourth  number,  in  the  article  on  Da 
vis'  Travels;  and  certainly  we  had  some  reason  to  drav. 
encouraging  presages  from  their  general  tone  in  this  outset. 
There  were  but  two  passages  in  the  article,  which  had  a  sinister 
aspect — one  which  asserted  roundly  that  habitual  drunkenness 
was  in  no  country  so  prevalent  as  in  the  United  States — an 
other  concerning  Franklin,  as  follows:  "  It  is  certain  that  thi 
enlightened  part  of  the  American  community  begin  now  t) 
consider  this  boasted  character  in  a  very  ambiguous  point  cf 
view,  and  to  attach  much  less  consequence  and  veneration  t:> 
his  memory  than  formerly.  To  him  they  are  certainly  in 
debted  for  the  most  important  public  services,  and  for  his 
strenuous  endeavours  to  introduce  among  them  a  taste  for 
science  and  literature;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  his  canting 
exhortations  to  extreme  frugality  have  had  their  effect  in  pre 
venting  the  expansion  of  the  noblest  principles  of  the  mind;  and 
his  example,  in  the  dereliction  of  religion,  has  certainly  lent  an 
unfortunate  support  to  the  cause  of  scepticism  and  infidelity.^ 

I  should  be  unjust  not  to  acknowledge  that  full  amends  were 
made,  at  the  same  tribunal,  to  the  memory  of  this  "  boasted 
character,"  in  two  copious  articles,  devoted  entirely  to  his 
panegyric,  and  producing  one  of  those  remarkable  antinomies 
in  its  decisions,  which  fall  within  the  scope  of  the  present 
exposition.  A  few  extracts  will  be  sufficient  for  the  intelli 
gence  of  the  case. 

/"Dr.  Franklin,  the  self  taught  American,  is  the  most  ra- 
/ional,  perhaps,  of  all  philosophers.  No  individual  ever  pos 
sessed  a  juster  understanding.  In  much  of  what  relates  to 
the  practical  wisdom  and  happiness  of  life,  his  views  will  be 
found  to  be  admirable,  and  the  reasoning  by  which  they  are 
supported  most  masterly  and  convincing.  Upon  the  mechanics 
and  tradesmen  of  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  he  endeavoured,  wit  !i 
appropriate  eloquence,  to  impress  the  importance  of  industr. . 
sobriety  and  economy,  and  to  direct  their  wise  and  humble 
ambition  to  the  attainment  of  useful  knowledge  and  honour 
able  independence.  Nothing  can  be  more  perfectly  and  beau 
tifully  adapted  to  its  object  than  Dr.  Franklin's  compositions 
of  this  sort.  The  strong  sense,  clear  information,  and  obviws 


BRITISH  REVIEWS.  211 

conviction  of  the  author  himself,  make  most  of  his  moral  SEC.  vir. 
exhortations  perfect  models  of  popular  eloquence,   &c.**We  <*~-v~^s 
should  think  his  account  of  his  own  life  a  very  useful  reading 
for  all  young  persons  of  unsteady  principle,  who  have  their 
fortunes  to  make  or  mend  in  this  world."* 

"  In  one  point  of  view,  the  name  of  Franklin  must  be  con 
sidered  as  standing  higher  than  any  of  the  others  which  illus 
trated  the  last  century.  Distinguished  as  a  statesman,  he  was 
equally  great  as  a  philosopher;  thus  uniting  in  himself  a  rare 
degree  of  excellence  in  both  those  pursuits,  to  excel  in  either 
of  which  is  deemed  the  highest  praise.  Each  successive  pub 
lication  of  this  great  man's  works  increases  our  esteem  for 
his  virtues,  and  our  admiration  of  his  understanding.  We 
can  offer  the  Americans  no  better  advice  than  to  recommend 
to  them  a  constant  study  of  Franklin,  of  his  principles,  as 
well  as  his  compositions.  The  example  of  this  eminent  per 
son  teaches  that  veneration  for  religion  is  quite  compatible 
with  a  sound,  practical  understanding.  Franklin  was  a  man 
of  a  truly  pious  turn  of  mind.  He  appears  to  have  been  a 
Christian  of  the  Unitarian  school.  If  his  own  faith  had  not 
gone  so  far,  he  at  least  would  greatly  have  respected  the  reli 
gion  of  his  country,  and  done  every  thing  to  encourage  its 
propagation.  His  moral  writings  are  superior  to  almost  any 
others,  in  any  language;  whether  we  regard  the  sound,  and 
striking,  and  useful  truths  with  which  they  abound,  or  the 
graceful  and  entertaining  shape  in  which  they  are  conveyed. 
His  piety  was  sincere  and  habitual.  Feelings  of  a  devotional 
cast  every  where  break  forth  in  his  writings.  He  is  habitually 
a  warm  advocate  for  religion."! 

The  article  on  Davis'  Travels  suggested  some  kind  apolo 
gies  for  us,  on  the  important  heads  of  intellect  and  literature, 
which  augured  favourably  for  the  justness,  as  well  as  libe 
rality,  of  the  views,  which  would  be  always  taken  in  relation 
to  those  subjects. 

"  We  do  not  mean  to  deny  the  charges  against  the  litera 
ture  and  learning  of  America:  literature  is  one  of  those  finer 
manufactures  which  a  new  country  will  always  find  it  easier 
to  import  than  to  raise.  There  must  be  a  great  accumulation 
of  stock  in  a  nation,  and  a  great  subdivision  of  labour,  before 
the  arts  of  composition  are  brought  to  any  great  degree  of 
perfection.  The  great  avenues  to  wealth  must  be  all  filled, 
and  many  left  in  hereditary  opulence  or  mediocrity,  before 

*  No.  16.  t  No.  57. 

VOL.  I.— E  e. 


218  HOSTILITIES    OF    THE 

PART  I.  there  can  be  leisure  enough,  among  such  a  people,  to  relish 

^-^'^"^  the  beauties  of  poetry,  or  to  create  an  effectual  demand  fo ? 

the  productions  of  genius.     These  causes  may  for  some  time 

retain  the  genius  of  America  in  a  slate  of  subordination  t<> 

that  of  Europe." 

"The  truth  is,  that  American  genius  has  displayed  itsell, 
wherever  inducements  have  been  held  out  for  its  exertion. 
Their  party  pamphlets,  though  disgraced  with  much  intem 
perance  and  scurrility,  are  written  with  a  keenness  and  spirit, 
that  is  not  often  to  be  found  in  the  old  world;  and  their  ora 
tors,  though  occasionally  declamatory  and  turgid,  frequently 
possess  a  vehemence,  correctness,  and  animation,  that  would 
command  the  admiration  of  any  European  audience,  and  excite 
the  astonishment  of  those  philosophers  who  have  been  tauglt 
to  consider  the  western  hemisphere  as  a  grand  receptacle  fcr 
ihe  degeneracies  of  nature." 

Afterwards,  from  time  to  lime,  we  found  general  opiniors 
uttered  in  the  same  quarter,  which  bespoke  a  correct  apprc  - 
hension  of  our  case,  and  some  of  which  I  think  it  well  to 
introduce  here. 

"  Among  men,  the  few  who  write  bear  no  comparison  to 
the  many  who  read.  We  hear  most  of  the  former,  indeed, 
because  they  are,  in  general,  the  most  ostentatious  part  of 
literary  men;  but  there  are  innumerable  men  who,  without 
ever  laying  themselves  before  the  public,  have  made  use  of 
literature  to  add  to  the  strength  of  their  understandings,  and  to 
improve  the  happiness  of  their  lives." 

"  We  must  say,  that  the  Americans  are  not  fairly  judged  of 
by  their  newspapers;  which  are  written  for  the  most  part  by 
expatriated  Irishmen,  or  Scotchmen,  and  other  adventurers  of 
a  similar  description,  who  take  advantage  of  the  unbounded 
license  of  the  press,  to  indulge  their  own  fiery  passions,  and 
aim  at  exciting  that  attention  by  the  violence  of  their  abuse, 
which  they  are  conscious  they  could  never  command  by  the 
force  of  their  reasonings.  The  greater  part  of  the  polished 
and  intelligent  Americans  appear  little  on  the  front  of  public 
life,  and  make  no  figure  in  her  external  history."  (1814). 

"It  is  pleasing  to  learn,  that  the  isolated  inhabitants  of  the 
western  forests  of  America  are  cheered  and  enlightened  with 
the  distant  literature  of  Europe;  that  there  are  here  men  capa 
ble  of  communicating  the  benefits  of  its  discoveries;  and 
emulous  in  their  turn,  to  extend  the  boundaries  of  knowledge 
by  new  discoveries  of  their  own."  (1805). 

u  Whenever  a  taste  for  literature  is  created  in  America,  we 
have  no  doubt  that  her  authors  will  improve  and  multiply  t<~-  a 


BRITISH   REVIEWS.  219 

degree  that  will  make  our  exertions  necessary  to  keep  the  start  SEC.  VII. 
we  now  have  of  them."  (No.  29).  v^-v^' 

"  The  great  body  of  the  American  people  is  better  educated 
and  more  comfortably  situated  than  the  bulk  of  any  European 
community,  and  possess  all  the  accomplishments  that  are  any 
where  to  be  found  in  persons  of  the  same  occupation  and  con 
dition."  (No.  25). 

Having  represented,  or  being  capable  of  seeing,  the  ques-  X 
tion  of  our  literature  and  intellectual  condition  in  these  lights, 
•^-discerning  the  general  causes  which  either  retarded  our 
advancement,  or  prevented  it  from  being  visible  abroad, — 
liberal  critics,  "  well  wishers  to  America,"  delighted  to 
protect  her  character  from  the  insults  of  malice  and  the 
judgments  of  ignorance,  might  have  been  expected  to  abstain, 
as  much  as  possible,  from  reciting  our  unavoidable  deficiences 
or  unsuccessful  attempts;  and  especially  from  making  them,  on 
every  practicable  occasion,  the  subject  of  burlesque  or  oppro 
brium:  They  might  have  been  expected  to  treat  our  literary 
performances  with  the  utmost  lenity,  and  to  hold  out  to  us  what 
ever  degree  of  positive  encouragement  was  consistent  with  the 
true  interests  of  literature;  the  more  as,  whatever  we  may 
have  arrogated  to  ourselves  in  other  respects,  we  have  rarely 
set  up  exorbitant  pretensions  on  the  score  of  our  books.  Let 
us  see  how  far  such  expectations  have  been  fulfilled  by  the 
liberals  of  the  Edinburgh  Review.  > 

The  first  production  of  our  press  brought  within  their  high 
cognizance,  was  the  fifth  volume  of  the  Transactions  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society.  A  society  of  this  description, 
sprung  from  the  most  generous  aspirations  and  benevolent 
aims;  formed  under  the  auspices  of  Franklin  and  Rittenhouse: 
arrested  in  its  promising  career  by  the  war  of  the  revolution, 
which  required  all  the  exertions  of  its  members  in  other  fields 
of  public  service;  struggling  anew,  when  the  unnatural  ag 
gressor  had  consented  to  sheathe  the  sword,  in  a  community 
universally  engaged  in  business,  and  under  all  the  disadvan 
tages  inseparable  from  a  new  country,  to  maintain  the  ap 
pearance  of  vital  action,  in  order  to  present  a  rallying  point, 
and  nucleus  of  science,  for  an  infant  nation — such  a  society 
was  in  itself,  independently  of  the  general  considerations  inti 
mated  above,  fitted  to  conciliate  forbearance,  and  even  ten 
derness  and  support,  from  the  votaries  of  knowledge  in  the 
old  world.*  Its  first  offerings  might  be  composed  of  no  very 


*  See  Note  O 


220 


HOSTILITIES    OF    THE 


PARTI,  excellent  materials;  they  might  be  deficient  in  interest  and 
v^~v">l*-/  instruction  for  an  European  savant;  yet,  liberal  minds, 
alive  to  the  excellence  of  its  object,  and  the  remote  in 
fluences  of  its  rude  essays,  would  not  fail  to  receive  them 
'with  respect,  and  to  rejoice  in  its  very  existence,  as  an  auspi 
cious  omen,  and  a  certain  source  of  future  good.  Whether 
actuated  by  reflections  of  this  kind,  or  a  confidence  in  its  po 
sitive  merit,  many  of  the  most  illustrious  of  the  scientific 
world  of  Europe  have  sought  to  be  ranked  among  its  mem 
bers;  and  displayed  the  title,  when  obtained,  in  the  front  of 
their  works,  with  evident  satisfaction.  Of  this  number,  I  may 
cite  Dugald  Stewart,  the  most  accomplished  and  enlightened 
of  the  countrymen  of  the  Edinburgh  critics. 

These,  our  well-wishers,  proceeded,  however,  with  a  spirit 
diametrically  opposite.  They  heaped  indignities  upon  the 
volume  of  the  American  Transactions,  and  made  their  ac 
count  of  it,  the  occasion  of  innuendos  and  sallies,  against  th< 
taste  and  learning  of  America  in  general.  The  following  ex- 
[racts  will  speak  for  themselves. 

"  The  want  of  refinement  in  arts  and  in  Belles  Lettres,  is. 
by  no  means,  the  only  circumstance,  that  distinguishes  om 
kinsmen  in  North  America,  from  the  inhabitants  of  the  eastern 
hemisphere.  They  appear  to  be  proportionally  deficient  in 
scientific  attainments.  The  volume  now  before  us,  one  of  the 
very  few  that  ever  issue  from  the  American  press,  contains  the 
whole  accumulation  of  American  discovery  and  observation, 
during  a  course  of  peaceful  years.  It  extends  to  328  pages, 
and  the  most  interesting  communication  it  has  to  boast  of  is 
the  valuable  paper  of  our  countryman,  Mr.  Strickland.  01 
all  the  academical  trifles  which  have  ever  been  given  to  the 
world,  eighty-nine  of  (he  pages,  the  work  of  Americans,  are 
the  most  trivial  and  dull.  Our  readers  will  judge  with  what 
difficulty  this  mite  has  been  collected,  when  we  mention  the 
subject,"  &c.  / 

"  Some  of  the  /American  philosophers  themselves  seem  to 
have  adopted  the  language  of  the  ludicrously  sentimental 
class  to  which  M.  Dupont  de  Nemours  (the  author  of  one  of 
the  papers)  belongs,  and  to  have  thought  it  a  good  substitute 
for  the  eloquence  and  power  of  fine  writing  which  Providence 
has  denied  to  their  race." — "By  the  manner  in  which  one  of 
the  American  contributors  cites,  and  more  especially  by  his 
remarks  upon  classical  learning,  we  are  inclined  to  suspect 
that  a  man  who  reads  the  easier  Latin  poets  is  not  to  be  met, 
with  every  day  hi  North  America." — "We  cannot  resist  the 
temptation  of  quoting  a  passage  from  his  paper;  the  moralizing 


BRITISH    REVIEWS. 

part  of  it  is  truly  American.  It  is  only  necessary  to  add,  for  SEC.Vll. 
the  information  of  the  American  Academies,  that  the  Latin  v-*-^^- 
quotation  is  nothing  at  all  to  the  purpose,"  &e.  u  Meanly  as 
our  readers  may  be  disposed  to  think  of  the  American  scienti 
fic  circles,  they  appear  to  be  highly  prized  by  their  own  mem 
bers.  The  society  whose  labours  we  have  been  describing, 
attaches  to  itself  the  name  of  '  Philosophical'  with  peculiar 
eagerness;  and  the  meeting-house,  where  the  transactions  of 
its  members  are  scraped  together,  and  prepared  for  being  in 
accurately  printed,  is,  in  the  genuine  dialect  of  tradesmen,  de 
nominated  k  Philosophical  Hall.' " 

"We  have  dwelt  longer  upon  this  article  than  its  merits 
justify,  for  the  purpose  of  stating  and  exemplifying  a  most 
curious  and  unaccountable  fact — the  scarcity  of  all  but  mercan-  4^ 
tile  and  agricultural  talents  in  the  new  wo^'ld."* 

3.  The  American  work  that  next  attracted  the  attention  of 
our  patrons,  happened  to  be  from  the  pen  of  a  minister  pleni 
potentiary  of  the  United  States  on  the  continent  of  Europe, 
the  son  of  the  American  President.  These  qualities  of  the 
author,  although  they  did  not  entitle  him  to  deference  as 
such,  yet  gave  him  claims  to  some  particular  personal  fa 
vour  and  respect,  from  critics  of  the  whig-school,  and  of 
the  hon-ton  of  European  society.  And  he  would  have  every 
right  to  expect  the  most  indulgent  dispositions,  for  his  work, 
if,  composed  of  sketches  which  were  reluctantly  permitted  to 
go  before  the  American  public  in  the  pages  of  an  American 
periodical  paper,  without  ulterior  destination,  it  had  taken  the 
shape  of  a  distinct  volume,  through  the  cupidity  of  a  London 
Bookseller; — if  at  the  same  time  it  was  altogether  free  from 
pretensions,  and  professedly  limited  to  certain  heads  of  obser 
vation,  upon  which  accurate  information  might  be  of  particular 
utility  to  his  countrymen.  The  "  Letters  from  Silesia"  of  Mr. 
John  Quincy  Adams,  to  which  it  will  be  understood  that  I 
have  been  referring,  were  attended  with  these  circumstances 
apparent  upon  the  face  of  the  volume  into  which  they  were 
collected.  I  will  venture  to  affirm,  moreover,  that  they  pos 
sess  much  absolute,  intrinsic  merit;  that  they  are  greatly  above 
the  common  standard  of  applauded  English  tours,  and  would 
have  been  declared  creditable  in  all  respects,  had  they  been 
the  production  of  an  Englishman  in  a  similar  station.  But  the 
Edinburgh  Review  was  as  ungracious  and  wayward  in  this 
instance,  as  in  that  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society.  It 


*  Compare  this  with  the  quotations  in  p. 


HOSTILITIES    OF    THE 

PART  J.  not  only  launched  hito  broad  generalities,  and  drew  iar-1'etche 3 
— ^v-^"  analogies,  to  decry  the  work  of  Mr.  Adams,  but  was  at  muc  i 
pains  to  disparage  his  understanding  and  feelings;  and  turne  J 
aside  from  the  only  proper  subject  of  animadversion,  to  carp 
and  sneer  at  the  studies  and  mind  of  his  country.  These  asser 
tions  might  be  the  more  strikingly  illustrated  here,  did  not  the 
same  tone  and  design  pervade  nearly  the  whole  of  the  article 
in  question;  at  the  same  time  that  the  critics  cannot  effectually 
conceal  the  sense,  which  they  really  entertain,  of  the  merits  of 
the  Letters.  A  few  excerpts  from  the  article  will  be  enough 
for  the  occasion. 

"It  may  appear  somewhat  hard  to  subject  a  work  which 
does  not  offend  by  any  pretensions  to  a  comparison  with  the 
excellent  standards  of  its  kind;  but  when  we  held  this  work 
in  our  hands,  we  could  not  help  thinking  of  the  American 
Presidency,  and  of  the  state  of  learning  in  that  powerful  and 
prosperous  commonwealth." 

^^  Although  this  author  is  neither  lively  nor  very  instructive, 
he  shows  some  qualities  which  makes  him  a  tolerable  compa 
nion  for  a  very  short  four."**"  The  feelings  of  Mr.  Adams 
about  his  native  country  more  resemble  the  loyal  acquiescence 
of  a  subject,  than  the  personal  interest  and  ardour  of  a  repub 
lican."**"  His  style  is,  in  general,  very  tolerable  English, 
which,  for  American  composition,  is  no  moderate  praise. "**"A 
spurious  dialect,  it  is  probable,  will  prevail  even  at  the  court 
and  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  until  that  great  com 
monwealth  shall  become  opulent  enough  to  break  more  dis 
tinctly  into  classes,"  &c.  \ 

At  the  appearance  of  another  American  work  of  the  highest 
possible  interest  and  elevation  as  to  the  subject,  and  proceeding 
from  the  first  law-dignitary  of  the  American  republic,  not  more 
respectable  by  his  exalted  station,  than  by  his  general  talents 
and  private  virtues — I  mean  the  Life  of  Washington  by  Chief 
Justice  Marshall — a  fair  opportunity  was  afforded  the  Edin 
burgh  illuminati,  to  resist  "the  impertinence  and  vulgar  in 
solence,"  and  the  "  bitter  sneering"  of  the  ministerial  party 
with  respect  to  American  concerns,  by  the  force  of  example, 
in  a  generous  exposition  of  the  merits  which  they  might  dis 
cover  in  !he  performance;  a  scrupulous  abstinence  from  harsh 
and  supererogatory  reflections  on  the  author  or  his  coun 
try,  and  a  commemoration  of  those  traits  in  the  American 
revolution,  which  distinguish  it  as  the  purest  and  noblest  among 
the  most  important  and  celebrated  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
Nothing  would  have  seemed  more  remote  from  probability, 
than  that  the  disciples  of  Fox  could,  on  the  occasion  of  re- 


BRITISH    REVIEWS. 


223 


viewing  an  authentic  biography  of  Washington,  labour  mainly  SEC.  VII. 
to  appear  smart  and  knowing,  at  the  expense  of  the  nation  v^-v-^> 
which  had  produced  this  model  of  heroes,  and  even  insult  the 
faithful  and  unassuming  biographer,  who  had  been  his  compa 
nion  in  arms,  had  enjoyed  his  intimate  friendship,  and  shared 
with  him  the  labours  and  honours  of  his  civil  administration. 
Whether  they  pursued  so  unworthy  a  course,  and  how  far 
they  improved  the  opportunity  above  mentioned,  to  the  very 
reverse  of  the  proper  ends,  may  be  ascertained  by  the  follow 
ing  short  extracts  from  the  article  under  consideration. 

"  Mr.  Marshall  must  not  promise  himself  a  reputation  com 
mensurate  with  the  dimensions  of  his  work." 

"  Mr.  Chief  Justice  Marshall  preserves  a  most  dignified  and 
mortifying  silence  regarding  every  particular  of  Washington's 
private  life,  &c.  Mr.  Marshall  may  be  assured  that  what 
passes  with  him  for  dignity,  will,  by  his  reader,  be  pronounced 
dullness  and  frigidity." 

"The  Speeches  in  this  work  display  great  commercial 
knowledge,  and  a  keen  style  of  argument — but  oratory  is  not 
to  be  looked  for  in  a  country  which  has  none  of  the  kindred 
arts.  All  the  specimens  of  American  eloquence  grievously 
sin  against  the  canons  of  taste." 

"  A  more  diffuse  and  undiscriminating  narrative  we  have 
seldom  perused.  It  is  deficient  in  almost  every  thing  that  con 
stitutes  historical  excellence,"  &c.  &c.  ) 

This  last  stricture  upon  the  narrative  is  followed  imme 
diately  by  the  observation — '/  It  displays  industry,  good 
sense,  and,  so  far  as  we  can  juuge,  laudable  impartiality;  and 
the  style,  though  neither  elegant  nor  impressive,  is  yet,  upon 
the  whole,  clear  and  manly. "J  No  ingenuity  but  that  of  the 
Edinburgh  critics,  would  be  adequate  to  explain,  how  a  nar 
rative  acknowledged  to  possess  these  qualities — which  Blair 
indicates  "  as  the  primary  qualities  required  in  a  good  histo 
rian" — could  yet  be  justly  proclaimed  "  deficient  in  almost 
every  thing  that  constitutes  historical  excellence." 

They  are  careful,  in  the  abundance  of  their  tenderness  for 
America,  to  note,  as  they  proceed  with  Judge  Marshall,  "  the 
ludicrous  proposition  of  her  Congress  to  declare  herself  the  most 
enlightened  nation  on  the  globe,"  This  taunt  had  been  so  of- en 
in  the  mouth  of  the  party  stigmatized  for  an  "  odious,  miserable, 
vulgar  spirit  of  abuse  against  America,"  that  the  repetition  of 
it  by  her  friends,  can  be  accounted  for,  only  by  its  egregious 
pleasantry.  I  propose  to  enquire  into  its  justice  hereafter, 
and  hope  to  render  this  point  at  least  doubtful.  Towards  the 
conclusion  of  the  article  on  the  Life  of  Washington,  there  is 


HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 

PART  I.  this  invidious  remark:  /  We  think  it  a  pretty  strong  proof  of 

^^^^  the  poverty  of  the  liteAry  attainments  of  America,  that  she 

has  not  been  able  to  tell  the  story  of  her  own  revolution,  and 

to  pourtray  the  character  of  her  hero  and  sage,  in  language 

worthy  such  subjects." 

I  do  not  mean  to  affirm  that  the  story  of  our  revolution 
has  been  told  absolutely  well  by  Marshall,  or  by  Ramsa), 
whose  Life  of  Washington  is  so  unceremoniously  consigned  by 
the  Scottish  reviewers  to  the  circulating  libraries.  Ramsay's 
History  of  the  American  Revolution,  which,  it  is  probable, 
they  had  never  deigned  to  open,  is,  however,  a  respectable 
production  in  all  points  of  view;  quite  equal,  as  regards  lite 
rary  execution,  to  any  historical  essay  respecting  the  affairs  cf 
England,  for  the  last  century,  and  superior,  as  regards  the  au 
thenticity  of  materials,  and  opportunities  of  knowledge.  The 
Somervilles,  the  Enticks,  the  Belshams,  the  Russels,  the 
Adolphus',  the  GifFords,  the  Biglands,  are  certainly  below  the 
level  of  Ramsay. 

To  no  people  whatever  can  we  apply  more  exactly,  than  to 
the  American,  the  observation  which  I  have  quoted  from  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  that  u  among  them  the  few  who  write 
bear  no  comparison  to  the  many  who  read."  According  to 
the  drift  of  the  Review  in  making  this  observation,  it  would 
be  unjusi  to  declare  the  poverty  of  the  literary  attainments  of 
America,  on  the  ground  that  she  has  not  yet  produced  a  first 
rate  history  of  her  revolution:  as,  in  point  of  fact,  nothing  can 
be  more  unfounded  than  the  allegation.  We  are  told  by  a 
Scottish  authority,  BlairT  that  the  island  of  Britain,  was  not 
eminent  for  its  historical  productions,  till  within  a  few  years 
prior  to  the  time  at  which  he  wrote;  that,  during  a  long  pe 
riod,  English  historical  authors  were  little  more  than  dull  com 
pilers,  when  at  length  the  distinguished  names  of  Hume,  Ro 
bertson,  and  Gibbon,  raised  the  British  character  in  that 
species  of  writing.*  Now,  if  the  logic  of  the  Edinburgh  Re 
view,  in  reference  to  America,  be  adopted — if  the  circum 
stance  of  our  not  having  told  well  the  story  of  our  revolution 
be  "  a  pretty  strong  proof  of  the  poverty  of  our  literary  attain 
ments,"  we  have,  in  the  statement  of  Blair,  u  pretty  strong 
proof"  that  Great  Britain  laboured  under  the  same  reproach 
until  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  And  the  igno 
miny  would  be  tenfold,  considering  the  superior  advantages  of 
her  situation  for  centuries  before  that  period.  The  absence 
of  historians  of  the  highest  order  is,  certainly,  the  last  defect 

*  Lectures  on  Rhetoric. — Lecture  36. 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 

in  our  literature  to  be  censured  by  a  nation  whose  historical  SEC.  VII. 
authors  were  bui  dull  compilers,  so  long  alter  she  had  the  full  w^~v-^^ 
enjoyment  of  all  those  facilities  to  perfection  in   the  arts  of 
composition,  which  the  Edinburgh  Review  has  justly  stated  to 
be  necessarily  wanting  to  a  new  country.* 

There  is  no  part  of  the  matter  introduced  into  the  Life  of 
Washington;  there  are  none  of  the  u  provincial  documents" 
with  which  it  is  peevishly  said  10  be  loaded,  that  are  not  in 
teresting  and  important  to  the  American  public;  and  for  this 
public  the  work  was  chieHy  intended.  It  became,  inevitably, 
a  History  of  the  American  Revolution,  not  only  on  account  of 
the  connexion,  more  or  less  immediate,  of  the  hero,  with  all 
the  great  occurrences  of  the  drama,  but  from  the  tenor  of  his 
manuscripts  upon  which  it  was  composed,  and  which  the 
biographer  was  bound  to  turn  to  the  fullest  account.  Its  bulk 
is  not,  therefore,  a  well-grounded  objection;  or  might,  at  least, 
have  found  indulgence  with  those,  who  could  not  have  been 
ignorant  of  the  more  inordinate  size  of  Clarendon's  History  of 
the  Rebellion;  Roscoe's  Life  of  Leo  X.;  Gifford's  Life  of 
Pitt;  Fra-Paolo's  History  of  the  Council  of  Trent;  Guicciar- 
dini's  History,  and  many  other  similar  works  of  great  ce 
lebrity,  of  which  the  subjects  are  of  less  real  importance  and 
dignity,  and  extend  through  no  greater  portion  of  time.  But, 
the  true,  and  principally,  exceptionable  feature,  in  Marshall's 
volumes,  is  one  which  has  never,  as  far  as  I  know,  been 
observed  at  home,  and  which  the  foreign  critics,  had  they 
been  able  to  perceive  it,  would  have  been  careful  not  to  sig 
nalize.  He  has  given,  as  historical  evidence,  determining  a 
general  phasis  of  the  revolution,  the  desponding  representa 
tions  made  by  Washington  in  his  private  letters  to  Congress; 
representations  which  took  their  hue  as  well  from  the  design 
of  the  writer  to  stimulate  that  body,  to  the  utmost  pitch  of  a 
particular  kind  of  effort,  as  from  the  engrossing  disquietudes 
natural  and  common  with  the  firmest  minds,  under  the  imme 
diate  pressure,  or  apprehension,  of  heavy  embarrassments. 
The  biographer  has  so  exhibited  the  difficulties  inherent  in  our 
defence,  and  the  momentary  impressions  which  their  emergence 
made  upon  the  Commander  in  chief,  as  to  lend  much  colour 
of  reason  at  least,  to  the  derogatory  suggestion  of  the  Edin 
burgh  Review — "  He  must  be  blind  who  does  not  see  in  this 
History,  that  all  the  array  of  American  patriotism  would  have 
been  utterly  unable,  but  for  the  incapacity  of  her  enemy,  to 

*  Note  P. 
TOL.  I.— F  f 


HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 

PART  I.  secure  her  independence."  The  main  idea  is  certainly  coun 
v-^~v~^"'  tenaneed  by  some  of  the  letters  of  Washington;  but  it  is  not, 
therefore,  the  less  unsound,  or  easy  of  refutation  upon  i 
comprehensive  and  critical  survey  of  the  whole  history  of 
the  revolution.  No  British  writer  will  assert,  or  admit,  that 
the  success  of  the  British  forces  under  Wolfe,  in  the  memor 
able  siege  of  Quebec,  was  owing  to  the  "  incapacity  of  the 
enemy:"  But  the  tone  of  the  first  despatches  of  that  intrepid 
leader  to  the  British  secretary  of  state,  is  quite  as  desponding;, 
as  the  private  communications  of  Washington  to  the  Americas 
congress,  and  would  equally,  upon  the  principles  of  the  Edin 
burgh  Review,  warrant  such  a  conclusion.  The  British  poli 
tician  of  an  enlarged  and  sagacious  mind,  who  will  look  into 
the  parliamentary  history  for  the  three  first  years  of  our  strug 
gle,  will  find  there,  in  the  facts  and  views  presented  by  the 
whig  orators,  enough  to  convince  him  of  the  error  of  any  hy 
pothesis,  implying,  that  we  could  not  have  worked  out  our 
political  salvation,  but  for  the  mismanagement  of  the  British 
ministry,  and  the  aid  of  the  French  court. 

4.  The  life  of  Washington  having  failed  to  draw  the  Edin 
burgh  wits  from  the  course,  to  appearance  so  little  in  unison 
with  their  professions,  which  was  pursued  with  the  letters  of 
Mr.  Adams,  we  cannot  be  surprised  if  the  Columbiad  of  Bar 
low  wrought  no  better  effect.  It  seems  to  have  been  committed 
to  the  Momus  of  the  fraternity  for  special  diversion.  Ac 
cordingly,  the  American  Epic  is  introduced,  with  refined 
humour,  as  "  the  goodly  firstling  of  the  infant  muse  of  Ame 
rica;"  and,  by  way,  no  doubt,  of  manfully  resisting  ministe 
rial  impertinence,  and  generously  soothing  the  feelings  of  the 
poet's  countrymen  for  the  sentence  which  it  might  be  necessary 
to  pass  upon  his  work — the  reviewer  immediately  salutes  them 
as  follows: — a  These  federal  republicans  are  very  much  such 
people,  we  suppose,  as  the  modern  traders  of  Liverpool,  Man 
chester,  or  Glasgow.  They  have  a  little  Latin  whipped  into 
them  in  their  youth,  and  read  Shakspeare,  Pope  and  Milton, 
as  well  as  bad  English  novels,  in  their  days  of  courtship  and 
leisure." 

I  cannot  undertake  to  repeat  the  exquisite  jokes  of  this 
article  on  the  Columbiad — such,  for  instance,  as  the  one 
about  "  those  fluent  and  venerable  personages,  the  rivers  Po- 
tomak  and  Delaware,"  nor  the  many  quips  respecting  the 
American  diction;  but  it  is  proper  to  quote  one  er  two  more 
phrases,  to  illustrate  the  obstinacy  of  that  unlucky  mood  which 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 

would  be  ever  at  variance  with  the  most  magnanimous  de-  SEC.  vn. 
signs  of  patronage.  <<^^^> 

"  We  have  often  heard  it  reported  that  our  transatlantic 
brethren  were  beginning  to  take  it  amiss  that  their  language 
should  still  be  called  English.  As  this  is  the  first  specimen 
which  has  come  into  our  hands  of  any  considerable  work  in 
the  .American  tongue,  it  may  be  gratifying  to  our  philological 
readers,"  &c. 

"  These  republican  literati  seem  to  make  it  a  point  of  con 
science  to  have  no  aristocratical  distinctions — even  in  tlu:ir 
vocabulary:  they  think  one  word  just  as  good  as  another, 
provided  the  meaning  be  clear,"  &c. 

Aspersions  upon  the  capacity  and  literature  of  the  Ameri 
can  people  at  large,  might  have  been  spared  by  "  well- 
wishers,"  even  in  a  criticism  upon  an  American  work.  But 
it  would  seem  still  more  incongruous  and  wanton,  to  hold 
them  up  to  contempt,  in  reviewing  a  mere  book  of  travels  in 
America,  declared,  at  the  same  time,  to  be  in  the  last  degree 
incredible  and  despicable.  This,  however,  is  done  in  the 
account  of  Ashe's  Travels,  in  the  30th  number  of  the  Edin 
burgh  Journal;  where,  while  the  reviewer  affects  to  reprobate 
and  deride  the  tales  of  the  wretched  impostor  and  swindler,* 
he  lends  himself  to  his  malignant  purpose.  It  is  from  them 
that  the  magnates  of  Scottish  literature  take  occasion  to  flout 
and  decry  a  nation  of  kinsmen  in  the  following  language: 

a  We  could  just  as  readily  believe  that  the  orations  of 
Sheridan  are  written  by  a  Philadelphia-man,  as  that  the 

*  Dr  Drake  relates,  in  his  "Picture  of  Cincinnati,"  the  following 
anecdote  of  Ashe. 

"  In  the  years  1802-3,  Dr.  William  Goforth,  with  an  ardour  of  curio 
sity  that  deserved  a  better  reward  than  awaited  his  exertions,  dug  up  in 
Kentucky,  and  transported  to  Cincinnati,  several  waggon  loads  of  Mam 
moth  bones.  They  were,  by  the  Doctor  and  George  Turner,  one  of  the 
members  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  examined  attentively, 
and  supposed  to  be  the  remains  of  no  less  than  six  non-descript  qua 
drupeds,  most  of  them  gigantic!  Among  the  rest,  some  of  the  bones 
of  the  rhinoceros  were  thought  to  be  ascertained.  Judge  Turner  made 
accurate  drawings  of  the  most  curious  of  those  fossils,  but  has  been  so 
unfortunate  as  to  lose  them. 

"In  the  spring  of  the  year  1803,  the  Doctor  formed  the  design  of 
transporting  these  bones  to  the  Atlantic  states.  They  reached  Pitts 
burgh,  and  were  there  stored.  Early  in  1806,  Professor  Barton  made 
an  application  to  purchase  them  ;  but  at  that  time  they  had  attracted 
the  attention  of  a  foreign  swindler,  named  Thomas  Arville,  alias  Jlshe, 
who  obtained  permission  of  the  owner  to  ship  them  to  Europe,  for 
exhibition ;  since  which  they  have  not  been  heard  of.  To  this  per 
sonal  injury  of  a  worthy  individual,  the  miscreant  has  since  added  a 
libel  on  the  American  people," 


HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 

PART  I.  speech  ol  au  American  orator  is  the  work  of  a  Scotch  re 

^^v-^-  porter." 

X  u  It  is  no  doubt  true,  that  Jlmerica  can  produce  nothing  tt 
bring  her  intellectual  efforts  into  any  sort  of  comparison  vvitl 
that  of  Europe.  These  republican  states  have  never  passeo 
the  limits  of  humble  mediocrity,  either  in  thought  or  expression 
Noah  Webster,  we  are  afraid,  still  occupies  the  first  place  ir 
criticism,  Timothy  Dwight  and  Joel  Barlow  in  poetry,  ant 
Mr.  Justice  Marshall  in  history:  and,  as  to  the  physical  sci 
ences,  we  shall  merely  observe,  that  a  little  elementary  trea 
tise  of  botany  appeared  in  1803;  and  that  this  paltry  contri 
bution  to  natural  history  is  chronicled,  by  the  latest  Americat 
historian,  among  the  remarkable  occurrences  since  the  revo 
lution  In  short,  federal  America  has  done  nothing,  either  tc 
extend,  diversify,  or  embellish  the  sphere  of  human  know 
ledge.  Though  all  she  has  written  were  obliterated  from  the 
records  of  learning,  there  would,  if  we  except  the  works  o 
Franklin,  be  no  positive  diminution,  either  of  the  useful  01 
the  agreeable.  The  destruction  of  her  whole  literature  wouh 
not  occasion  so  much  regret  as  we  feel  for  the  loss  of  a  fev\ 
leaves  from  an  ancient  classic." 

"  But,  notwithstanding  all  this,  we  really  cannot  agree  with 
Mr.  Ashe  in  thinking  the  Americans  absolutely  incapable,  or 
degenerate;  and  are  rather  inclined  to  think,  that  when  their 
neighbourhood  thickens,  and  their  opulence  ceases  to  depend 
on  exertion,  they  will  show  something  of  the  same  talents  to 
which  it  is  a  part  of  our  duty  to  do  justice  among  ourselves. 
And  we  are  the  more  inclined  to  adopt  t\i\s  favour  able  opinion. 
from  considering,  that  her  history  has  already  furnished  occa 
sions  for  the  display  of  talents  of  a  high  order;  and  that,  in 
the  ordinary  business  of  government,  she  displays  no  mean 
share  of  ability  and  eloquence." 

u  That  the  Americans  have  great  and  peculiar  faults,  boll 
in  their  manners  and  in  their  morality,  we  take  to  be  undeni 
able.  Their  manners,  for  the  most  part,  are  those  of  a  scat 
tered,  migratory,  but  speculating  people;  and  there  will  be  nc 
great  amendment  until  their  population  becomes  more  dense, 
and  more  settled  in  its  habits.  As  the  population  becomes  con 
centered,  and  the  spirit  of  adventure  is  deprived  of  its  objects., 
the  sense  of  honour  will  improve  with  the  importance  of  cha 
racter."  (No.  30.)*  ^ 

The  relish  for  the  topic  of  the  insignificance  of  American 
literature,  and  for  the  waggish  citation  of  the  names  of  some 

*  See  Note  Q- 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 


229 


of  the  American  literati,  proved  so  keen  and  lasting,  that  we  SEC.  vil. 
have  been  recently  treated  with  them  again.    What  archness,  v-^^-^ 
sagacity,  knowledge,  and  despatch  in  the  following  passage  of 
the  article  on  the  travels  of  Fearon — that  rightful  successor 
of  Ashe,  worthy  of  exciting  the  same  strain  in  the  reviewer! 

"Literature  the  Americans  have  cone — no  native  litera 
ture,  I  mean.  It  is  all  imported.  They  had  a  Franklin, 
indeed;  and  may  afford  to  live  for  half  a  century  on  his  fame. 
There  is,  or  was,  a  Mr.  D wight,  who  wrote  some  poems;  and 
his  baptismal  name  was  Timothy.*  There  is  also  a  small 
account  of  Virginia  by  Jefferson,  and  an  epic  by  Joel  Barlow — 
and  some  pieces  of  pleasantry  by  Mr.  Irving.  But  why  should 
the  Americans  write  books,  when  a  six  weeks  passage  brings 
them,  in  their  own  tongue,  four  sense,  science,  and  genius,  in 
bales  and  hogsheads.}  Prairies,  steam-boats,  grist-mills,  are 
their  natural  objects  for  centuries  to  come.  Then,  when  they 
have  got  to  the  Pacific  ocean — epic  poems,  plays,  pleasures  of 
memory,  and  all  the  elegant  gratifications  of  an  ancient  peo 
ple  who  have  tamed  the  wild  earth,  and  set  down  to  amuse 
themselves!"  I 

5.  The  Edinburgh  Review,  preluded,  as  we  have  seen, 
with  apologizing  for  our  supposed  deficiencies  in  literature, 
but  quickly  fell  into  the  habit  of  emblazoning  them  to  the 
utmost,  whenever  America  happened  to  be  in  question,  even 
as  to  matters  entirely  distinct.  A  similar  course  has  been 

*  Dr.  Dwight  seems  to  have  obtained  a  permanent  niche  in  the  me 
mory  of  the  critic.  Thus  we  have,  on  another  occasion.  "  The  poetry 
of  Dr.  Dwight  is  evidently  the  growth  of  a  country  where  only  the 
coarser  sorts  of  industry  yet  flourish."  (No.  29.)  Now,  considering 
this  utter  umvorthiness  of  the  Connecticut  poet,  it  is  rather  extraordi 
nary  that  Darwin  should  have  ascribed  to  his  Conquest  of  Canaan 
"  much  fine  versification."  (Botanic  Garden,  note,  line  364,  part  1.) ;  and 
that  Campbell,  whom  the  reviewers  have  placed  above  all  the  bards  of 
the  age,  should  have  borrowed  passages  from  his  religious  epic  to 
adorn  a  compilation  of  the  beauties  of  English  poetry.  Tn  introducing 
these  passages,  Campbell  remarks,  indeed, — "  Of  this  American  poet 
I  am  sorry  to  be  able  to  give  the  British  reader  no  account.  I  believe 
his  personal  history  is  as  little  known  as  his  poetry,  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic."  But,  truly,  the  British  reader  might  justly  complain  ;  for, 
Dr.  Dwight  made  so  conspicuous  a  figure  in  the  affairs  of  New  Eng 
land,  and  was  so  diffusively  and  advantageously  famous  throughout  this 
country,  that  it  would  not  have  been  very  difficult  to  come  at  his  per 
sonal  history,  even  in  London.  The  President  of  Yale  College,  the 
second  in  the  union  in  extent  and  consideration ;  an  eminent  divine, 
a  politician  of  great  influence,  a  voluminous,  popular  and  able  writer, 
could  remain  unknown  only  to  those  who  were  entirely  ignorant  of 
American  affairs 


230  HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 

PART  I.  pursued  by  the  critics  in  relation  to  our  moral  condition,  man- 
V-^N'^^/  ners,  and  general  dispositions.  Their  excuses  for  their  u  ki-is- 
men  of  the  west,"  on  these  heads,  have  almost  always  h  id, 
more  or  less,  the  air  of  mockery,  and  carried  a  sharper  sting 
than  their  open  defamation.  The  following  passages  are  won 
derfully  kind  and  encouraging,  and  furnish  a  specimen  of  he 
sapient,  maternal  discussions  about  us  in  the  mother  country. 
"  Why  the  Americans  are  disliked  in  this  country  we  ht>ve 
never  been  able  to  understand;  for  most  certainly  they  re 
semble  us  far  more  than  any  other  nation  in  the  world.  They 
are  brave  and  boastful,  and  national  and  factious,  like  o'ir- 
selves; — about  as  polished  as  99  in  100  of  our  own  county- 
men  in  the  upper  ranks — and  at  least  as  moral  and  well  edu* 
cated  in  the  lower.  Their  virtues  are  such  as  we  ought  to 
admire — for  they  are  those  on  which  we  value  ourselves  most 
highly:  and  their  very  faults  seem  to  have  some  claim  to  our 
indulgence,  since  they  are  those  with  which  we  also  are  re 
proached  by  third  parties."  (1814). 

"  The  complaint  respecting  America  is,  that  there  are  no 
people  of  fashion — that  their  column  still  wants  its  Corinthian 
capital — or,  in  other  words,  that  those  who  are  rich  and  idle, 
have  not  yet  existed  so  long,  or  in  such  numbers,  as  to  have 
brought  to  full  perfection  that  system  of  ingenious  trifling,  and 
elegant  dissipation,  by  means  of  which  it  has  been  discovered 
that  wealth  and  leisure  may  be  most  agreeably  disposed  of. 
Admitting  the  fact  to  be  so,  and  in  a  country  where  there  is  no 
court,  no  nobility,  and  no  monument  or  tradition  of  chivalrous 
usages — and  where,  moreover,  the  greatest  number  of  those 
who  are  rich  and  powerful  have  raised  themselves  to  that 
eminence  by  mercantile  industry,  we  really  do  not  see  how 
it  could  well  be  otherwise — we  could  still  submit,  that  this  is 
no  lawful  cause  either  for  national  contempt,  or  for  national 
hostility.  It  is  a  peculiarity  in  the  structure  of  society  among 
that  people,  which,  we  take  it,  can  only  give  offence  to  their 
visiting  acquaintance;  and,  while  it  does  us  no  sort  of  harm 
while  it  subsists,  promises,  we  think,  very  soon  to  disappear 
altogether,  and  no  longer  to  afflict  even  our  imaginations. 
The  number  of  individuals  born  to  the  enjoyment  of  heredi 
tary  wealth  is,  or  at  least  was,  daily  increasing  in  that  coun 
try';  and  it  is  impossible  that  their  multiplication, — with  all 
the  models  of  European  refinement  before  them,  and  all  the 
advantages  resulting  from  a  free  government,  and  a  general 
system  of  good  education — should  fail,  within  a  very  short 
period,  to  give  birth  to  a  better  tone  of  conversation  and  society, 
and  to  manners  more  dignified  and  refined.  Unless  we  are  very 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 


231 


much  misinformed  indeed,  the  symptoms  of  such  a  change  may  SEC.  vn. 
already  be  traced  in  their  cities.     Their  youths  of  fortune  al-.  N^>ow 
ready  travel  over  all  the  countries  of  Europe  for  their  improve 
ment;  and  specimens  are  occasionally  met  with  even  in  these 
islands,  which,  with  all  our  prejudices,  we  must  admit,  would 
do  no  discredit  to  the  best  blood  of  the  land  from  which  they 
originally  sprung."* 

There  would  have  been  too  much  of  consistency  in  pre 
serving,  on  all  occasions,  the  condescension  exerted  in  these 
passages.  The  tone  of  greeting  is  not  so  mincing  or  comfort- 
able  in  the  following  extracts: 

"  The  public  functionaries  in  America  are  so  poorly  pro 
vided,  that  no  prosperous  counsellor,  for  instance,  will  accept 
of  the  office  of  judge,  and  few  men  of  abilities  will  dedicate 
them  to  so  unprofitable  a  task  as  the  management  of  public 
affairs.  Their  legislature  is  therefore  deficient  both  in  talent 
and  authority,  and  she  has  already  experienced  more  than  one 
shock  from  the  irregular  impulse  of  that  ambition  and  talent 
for  which  no  adequate  recompense  has  been  provided  within 
the  pale  of  her  constitution."  (No.  28). 

"  The  Americans  are  all  jealous  republicans,  and  all  out 
rageously  proud  of  their  constitution,  and  vain  of  their  country. 
This  passion  exists,  in  America,  in  a  degree  that  is  both 
offensive  and  ridiculous  to  strangers!"  (No.  40). 
/"  They,  of  the  western  country,  are  hospitable  to  strangers, 
because  they  are  seldom  troubled  with  them;  and  because 
they  have  always  plenty  of  maize  and  smoked  hams.j  Their 
hospitality,  too,  is  always  accompanied  with  impertinent 
questions;  and  a  disgusting  display  of  national  vanity.'? 
(No.  13). 

a"  There  are  no  very  prominent  men  at  present  in  America; 
t  least,  none  whose  fame  is  strong  enough  for  exportation. 
Munro  is  a  man  of  plain,  unaffected  good  sense.     Jefferson, 

*  No.  40. 

f  The  poor  Irish  at  least,  are  placed  out  of  the  reach  of  so  charitable 
an  explanation;  and  if  the  people  of  England  are  hospitable,  it  is  not 
certainly  from  this  cause.  I  take  the  following  from  Bell's  Weekly 
Messenger  for  Feb.  7th,  1819. 

"  On  Friday  a  donation  of  the  Regent  gave  cheerfulness  to  the 
lowly  habitations  of  the  indigent  of  Brighton.  A  large  quantity  of 
prime  beef,  to  the  value  of  one  hundred  pounds,  by  royal  command, 
was  distributed  to  the  industrious  poor  with  families,  in  proportions 
according  to  their  number  and  necessities,  by  the  parochial  officers. 
The  widows'  and  the  orphans'  tears  bore  testimony  of  the  gratitude  felt,  and 
expressions  of  thankfulness,  directed  towards  their  beloved  and  generoim  be 
nefactor,  ivere  wiiversal." 


HOSTILITIES  OP  THE 

PARTI.  we  believe,  is  still  alive;  and  has   always  been  more  remaik- 
^^^^^^  able,  perhaps,  for  the  early  share  he  took  in  the  formation  of 
the  republic,  than  from  any  very  predominant  superiority  of 
understanding."  (No.  61). 

It  is  well  to  be   undeceived,  let  the  nature  of  the  error  be 
what  it  may.     But  the  Americans  had  credulously  imagined, 
that  the  fame  of  the  military  and  naval  commanders  by  whom 
the  British  were,  during  the  last  American  war,  "  worsted  in 
most  of  their  naval  encounters,  and  baffled  in  most  of  tlnir 
enterprises  by  land,"*  was  "  strong  enough  for  exportation." 
They  thought  the   same,  with  respect  to  those  u  statesm*  n, 
most  of  whom  survive,   by  whom  the  affairs  of  the  United 
States  have  been  administered  in  times  of  great  difficulty,  with 
a  forbearance,  circumspection,  and  constancy,  not  surpassed 
in  those  commonwealths  who  have  been  most  justly  renowned 
for  the  wisdom  of  their  councils."!     As  regards  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  it  will  not  be  deemed  an   unaccountable  illusion  in  the 
Americans  to  have  ascribed  to  him   "  a  predominant  supe  i- 
ority  of  understanding,"  when  it  is  recollected   that  they  hid 
read   the  following  remarks  in  the  article  of  the  Edinburgh 
Review  on  Janson's  travels:  "  Mr.  Janson  drags  individuals 
into  notice  without  ceremony.     As  for  his  endless  invectives 
agaiftst  Mr.  Jefferson,  they  belong  to  another  class  of  wrongs, 
and  only  obtain  their  share  of  the  dignified  contempt  by  which 
that  eminently  wise  ruler  has  consigned  to  oblivion  all   the 
spoken  and  written  scurrility  of  his  enemies.''^     While  them 
selves  engaged  in   "  dragging  individuals   into  notice,"  the 
Scottish  critics  should  not  have  forgotten  the  names  of  John 
Adams,  James  Madison,   John  Jay,  Rufus  King,   Thomas 
Pinckney,  De  Witt  Clinton,  John  Quincy  Adams,  and  even 
Mr.  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  all  of  whom,  by  a  diligent  per 
quisition,  they  could  have  ascertained  to  be  still  on  the  stage  of 
life.    Two  of  these  at  least,  might  be  considered  as  prominent, 
since  they  wrote  the  principal  portion  of  the  work  called  the 
Federalist,  which  the   Scottish   dispensers  of  renown    have 
themselves  described  as  u  a  publication  that  exhibits  an  extent 
and  precision  of  information,  a  profundity  of  research,  and  an 
acuteness  of  understanding,  which  would  have  done  honour  to 
the  most  illustrious  statesman  of  ancient  or  modern  times. "§ 


*  Edinburgh  Review.— 1814. 

f  Ibid.  No.  61.     Article  on  Universal  Suffrage. 

*  No.  29. 

§  No.  24.     Article  on  Hillhouse's  proposed  amendment  to  the  Anr*- 
rican  Constitution. 


BRITISH  REVIEWS.  »33 

In  the  number  of  this  journal,  the  61st,  which  tells  us  that  SEC.  Vtf. 
we  have  no  prominent  men,  it  is  obligingly  said,  "  the  Ameri-  s^v-%* 
cans  are  a  very  sensible,  reflecting  people,  and  have  conducted 
their  affairs  extremely  w ell !:"  but  at  the  same  moment  the  com 
pliment  is  retracted,  in  a  burst  of  spleen  more  violent  and 
acrid,  than   any  of  the  effusions  of  the  Quarterly  Review, 
which  I  shall  soon  be  called  to  notice.  ^ 

"  The  great  curse  of  America  is  the  institution  of  slavery — 
of  itself  far  more  than  the  foulest  blot  upon  their  national 
character,  and  an  evil  which  counterbalances  all  the  excise 
men,  licensers,  and  tax-gatherers  of  England." 

"  That  slavery  should  exist  among  men  who  know  the  value 
of  liberty,  and  profess  to  understand  its  principles,  is  the  con 
summation  of  wickedness.  Every  American,  who  loves  his 
country,  should  dedicate  his  whole  life,  and  every  faculty  of 
his  soul,  to  efface  this  foul  stain  from  its  character.  If  nations 
rank  according  to  their  wisdom  and  their  virtue,  what  right 
has  the  American,  a  scourger  and  murderer  of  slaves,  to  com 
pare  himself  with  the  least  and  the  lowest  of  the  European  na 
tions'?  much  more  with  this  great  and  humane  country,  where 
the  greatest  lord  dare  not  lay  a  finger  upon  the  meanest  pea 
sant?  What  is  freedom,  where  all  are  not  free?  Where  the 
greatest  of  God's  blessings  is  limited,  with  impious  ctfjirice, 
to  the  colour  of  the  body?  And  these  are  the  men  who  taunt 
the  English  with  their  corrupt  parliament,  with  their  buying 
and  selling  votes.  Let  the  world  judge  which  is  the  most 
liable  to  censure — we  who,  in  the  midst  of  our  rottenness, 
have  torn  off  the  manacles  of  slaves  all  over  the  world,  or  they 
who,  with  their  idle  purity,  and  useless  perfection,  have  re 
mained  mute  and  careless,  while  groans  echoed  and  whips 
clanked  round  the  very  walls  of  their  spotless  Congress.  The 
existence  of  slavery  in  America  is  an  atrocious  crime,  with 
which  no  measures  can  be  kept — for  which  her  situation  affords 
no  apology — which  makes  liberty  itself  distrusted,  and  the 
boast  of  it  disgusting."  A.. 

6.  It  was,  perhaps,  known  to  the  authors  of  the  Review, 
that  no  small  part  of  the  American  public,  in  spite  of  all 
that  I  have  quoted  from  it  of  an  earlier  date,  still  credulously 
relied  upon  its  general  professions  and  character.  They  mag 
nanimously  determined  at  length,  to  dissipate  the  delusion,  or 
conceived  the  project  of  putting  it  to  the  last  test,  by  these 
fierce  invectives. 

I  will  discuss,  in  another  place,  the  validity  of  the  sweeping 
VOL.  I.— G  g 


<*«**  HOSTILITIES  OP  THE 

PART  I.  charges  founded  upon  the  existence  of  domestic  slavery  among 
^*~*~^~'  us,  my  immediate  object  being  little  more  than  to  exemplify 
the  feeling,  or  the  policy,  of  the  leading  journals  of  Great 
Britain.  We  may,  however,  delay  a  while,  to  illustrate  further 
the  consistency  and  modesty  of  the  Edinburgh  critics.  In  th? 
same  article  which  contains  the  charges  just  mentioned,  they 
write  thus.  u  Any  person,  with  tolerable  prosperity  here  ia 
England,  had  better  remain  where  he  is.  There  are  consi 
derable  evils,  no  doubt,  in  England;  but  it  would  be  madness 
not  to  admit  that  it  is,  upon  the  whole,  a  very  happy  country. 
Now,  it  was  only  in  the  number  of  their  journal  immediately 
preceding,  in  the  article  on  Birbeck's  travels,  that  we  read 
the  following  language. 

"  With  all  its  excellencies,  the  English  government  is  a 
most  expensive  one:  protection  to  person  and  property  is  no 
where  so  dearly  purchased;  and  the  follies  of  the  people,  and 
the  corruption  of  their  rulers,  have  entailed  such  a  load  of 
debt  upon  us,  that  whoever  prefers  his  own  to  any  other  coun 
try,  as  a  place  of  residence,  must  be  content  to  pay  an  enor 
mous  price  for  the  gratification  of  his  wish.  In  truth,  a 
temptation  to  emigrate  is  now  held  out  to  all  persons  of  mo 
derate  fortune,  which  must,  in  very  many  cases,  prove  altoge 
ther  ^resistible.  Nor  can  any  thing  be  more  senseless  than 
the  wonder  testified  by  some  zealous  lovers  of  their  native 
land,  at  any  family  of  small  income,  seeking  a  more  fruitful 
soil  and  a  better  climate,  where  half  their  means  may  not  be 
seized  to  pay  the  state  and  the  poor.  Mr.  Birbeck,  as  a 
moderate  capitalist,  and  the  father  of  a  large  family,  may  be 
justified  in  every  point  of  view  for  leaving  this  country." 

In  the  last  pages  of  the  article  on  Birbeck's  Travels,  it  is 
elaborately  maintained  by  the  reviewer,  that  the  American 
union  will  continue:  but,  in  the  next  number  of  the  Journal, 
we  are  told  that  "  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  conceive  that  such 
an  empire  as  the  American  should  very  long  remain  undi 
vided."  The  truly  sound  doctrine  of  the  article  on  Birbeck 
furnishes  the  best  answer  to  this  assertion.  It  is  as  follows. 

"It  might  be  proper,  however,  to  consider  the  real  ground  of  stabi 
lity  which  the  government  of  America  possesses,  before  we  decide  in 
so  positive  a  mariner  against  it.  There  can  be  little  doubt,  that  the 
whole  question  turns  upon  the  difference  of  American  and  European 
society,  and  the  total  want  in  the  former,  of  that  race  of  political  cha 
racters  which  abounds  in  the  latter.  In  America,  all  men  have  abun 
dant  occupation  of  their  own,  without  thinking  of  the  state.  Every 
person  is  deeply  interested,  and  perpetually  engaged,  in  driving  his 
trade,  and  cultivating  his  land :  and  little  time  is  left  to  any  one  for 
thinking  of  state  affairs,  except  as  a  subject  of  conversation.  As  a 
business  they  engage  the  attention  of  no  one  except  the  rulers  of  th^ 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 


235 


country;  and  even  they  keep  the  concerns  of  the  public  subordinate  SRC.  VII. 
to  their  own.  The  governor  of  a  state  is  generally  a  large  land  owner  \^"v>^ 
and  farmer  of  his  own  ground.  A  foreign  minister  is  the  active  mem 
ber  of  a  lucrative  and  laborious  profession,  quitting  it  for  a  few  months, 
and  returning  to  its  gains  and  its  toils  when  his  mission  is  ended.  The 
business  of  the  senate  occupies  but  a  few  weeks  in  the  year;  and  no 
man  devotes  himself  so  much  to  its  duties,  as  to  leave  it  doubtful  to 
what  class  of  the  industrious  community  he  properly  belongs.  The 
race  of  mere  statesmen,  so  well  known  a'mong  us  in  the  Old  World,  is 
wholly  unknown  in  the  New ;  and  until  it  springs  up,  even  the  founda 
tions  of  a  change  cannot  be  considered  as  laid.  The  Americans  no 
doubt  are,  like  other  freemen,  decided  partisans,  and  warm  political 
combatants;  but  what  project  or  chance  can  counterbalance,  in  their 
eyes,  the  benefits  conferred  by  the  union,  of  cultivating  their  soil,  and 
pursuing  their  traffic  freely  and  gainfully,  in  their  capacity  of  private 
individuals  ?  A  preacher  of  insurrection  might  safely  be  left  with  such 
personages  as  the  American  farmers;  and  until  the  whole  frame  of 
society  alters,  even  a  great  increase  of  political  characters  will  not 
enable  those  persons  successfully  to  appeal  to  the  bulk  of  the  commu> 
nity,  with  the  prospect  of  splitting  the  union.  The  cautious  and  eco 
nomical  character  of  the  Federal  Government  seems  admirably  adapted 
to  secure  its  hold  over  the  affections  of  a  rational  and  frugal  people.'* 

The  Edinburgh  Review  is,  doubtless,  the  last  quarter  in 
which  we  are  to  look  for  proof  of  the  assertions  that  England 
is  "  a  very  happy  country,  where  all  are  free" — "  a  great  and 
humane  country,  which  has  torn  off  the  manacles  of  slaves 
all  over  the  world."  In  the  same  article  in  which  those  asser 
tions  are  made,  we  read  that  "  a  very  disgusting  feature  in 
the  present  English  government  is  its  extreme  timidity,  and 
the  cruelty  and  violence  to  which  its  timidity  gives  birth;" 
that  in  government-cases  the  judges  are  not  independent;  that 
"  the  savage  spectacle"  is  exhibited  "  of  a  poor  wretch,  per 
haps  a  very  honest  man,  contending  in  vain  against  the  weight 
of  an  immense  government,  pursued  by  a  zealous  attorney, 
and  sentenced,  by  some  candidate,  perhaps,  for  the  favour  of 
the  crown,  to  the  long  miseries  of  the  dungeon."  On  the 
point  of  England's  having  "  torn  off  the  manacles  of  slaves 
all  over  the  world,"  the  several  articles  of  that  Journal  con 
cerning  the  condition  of  the  blacks  in  the  British  West  Indies, 
of  the  Hindoos,  of  the  Irish  Catholics,  furnish  an  admirable 
commentary.  The  same  Number  in  which  that  glorious  dis 
tinction  is  claimed  for  England,  begins  with  an  account  of 
Mills'  History  of  British  India,  and  ends  with  a  view  of  the 
state  of  the  Irish  Catholics;  wherein  her  millions  of  Irish  and 
Indian  subjects  are  represented  as  labouring  under  the  most 
galling  and  withering  tyranny.  The  language  of  the  follow 
ing  passages,  for  instance,  is  tolerably  significative,  and  has 
the  advantage  of  being  undeniably  true. 


236  HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 

PART  I.  "  We  find,  at  the  very  outset  of  the  history  of  the  East  India  Con- 
pany  as  a  governing  body,  a  series  of  acts  of  treachery  and  unjust  vio 
lence,  such  as  it  would  not  be  easy  to  match  in  the  annals  of  men  whom 
we  are  accustomed  to  consider  as  the  worst  of  tyrants." 

"  We  are  accustomed  to  rate  very  highly  the  security  which  is  di- 
rived  from  being  governed  by  men  having  the  advantages  of  Englhh 
education  and  English  feelings.  But  it  affords  a  lesson  of  melancho  y 
instruction  as  to  the  feebleness  of  this  security,  when  we  see  gentleme  n 
eminently  possessed  of  these  advantages,  and  placed  far  above  tLe 
reach  of  want,  ready  to  destroy  the  commerce  of  a  great  country,  x> 
break  down  the  administration  of  justice,  to  oppress  the  people,  :o 
violate  treaties,  to  kindle  a  war,  and  to  depose  a  monarch,  their  ally, 
merely  to  secure  to  themselves  the  profits  of  an  illegal  traffic." 

"Such  are  the  melancholy  results  of  the  attempts  to  improve  the 
condition  of  Bengal,  described  not  by  inimical  observers  or  seve  -e 
judges,  but  by  the  magistrates  who,  from  the  prejudices  of  their  situa 
tion,  would  be  inclined  to  behold  every  indication  of  improvemei  t, 
under  the  auspices  of  a  British  administration,  with  a  favourable  eye. 
Every  person  of  rank  and  property  reduced  to  the  lowest  condition, — 
the  cultivator  exposed  to  intolerable  exaction, — the  courts  of  justice 
virtually  closed  against  suitors, — the  most  terrible  of  crimes  increased 
to  that  extent,  that  no  security  for  person  or  property  can  be  said  o 
exist, — minor  offences  not  diminished, — dissoluteness  of  morals  be 
come  more  general, — and  a  police,  of  which  the  vices  render  it,  instead 
of  a  benefit,  a  pest  to  the  country:  these,  according  to  the  highest 
authorities,  are  the  characteristics  of  that  part  of  India,  where  our 
reforms  have  had  the  longest  time  to  operate." 

"  To  this  picture  must  those  open  their  eyes,  who  have  been  con 
soling  themselves,  on  every  act  of  aggression  and  conquest,  however 
unjust  in  itself,  with  the  reflection  that  the  extension  of  the  British 
power  was  an  extension  of  benefits  and  of  security  to  the  natives. 
One  advantage  has  certainly  attended  the  introduction  of  an  English 
administration :  the  direct  oppression  which  the  superiors  exercised, 
as  of  right,  over  their  inferiors  is  lessened;  but  that  oppression  was 
much  less  terrible  than  the  increased  acts  of  violence  and  cruelty  of 
the  unlicensed  plunderers  who  were  kept  in  awe  by  the  vigilance  of 
the  former  rulers;  nor  can  the  occasional  acts  of  violence,  on  the 
part  of  the  native  governments,  towards  its  higher  subjects,  bear  a 
comparison  with  those  regulations,  which  have  produced  a  greater 
change  in  the  landed  property  than  was  ever  known  before,  and  in  a 
few  years  reduced  the  majority  of  the  zemindars  to  distress  and  beg 
gary." 

"  The  lawless  habits  of  the  people,  in  the  ordinary  and  best  state  of 
the  interior  of  Ireland,  and  all  the  occasional  disturbances  of  a  more 
serious  character,  are  to  be  traced  to  the  system  of  law  which  has 
divided  the  inhabitants  of  Ireland  into  a  Protestant  Oligarchy,  admi 
nistering  in  detail  the  government  of  the  country  over  a  Catholic  mul 
titude: — The  one  armed  with  all  sorts  of  arbitrary  powers;  the  other 
excluded  from  the  constitution,  and  subjected  to  every  species  of 
penalties." 

"  In  all  former  times  of  peace,  the  establishment  for  Ireland  has  been 
8000  men.  The  number  voted  last  year  was  22,000.  Besides  the 
expense  of  maintaining  this  extra  number  of  14,000  men,  there  is  also 
the  expense  of  police  establishments,  prosecutions,  and  a  variety  of 
other  charges,  which  grow  out  of  the  system  of  governing  the  people 
on  the  principle  of  exclusion  from  their  civil  rights.  In  the  last  year's 
public  accounts,  there  is  a  charge  of  38,9521.  for  police  establishments 
in  proclaimed  districts ;  and  another  for  12,000/.  secret  service,  in 
detecting  treasonable  conspiracies." 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 


237 


"In  vain  have  the  hands  of  government  been  strengthened  in  Ire-    SEC.  VII. 
land,  and  the  terrors  of  its  power  let  loose,  in  every  form  of  civil  pro-  v^-v-x^/ 
scription  and  military  execution.     The  evil  of  an  alienated  population  is 
not  to  be  so  overmastered.     They  cannot  love  a  constitution  from 
which  they  are  excluded,  nor  venerate  a  law  which  withholds  from 
them  the  rights  which  it  secures  to  the  more  favoured  part  of  the  po 
pulation,  by  whom  it  is  made  and  administered." 

With  respect  to  the  many  hundred  thousand  blacks  of  the 
British  West  Indies,  the  manner  in  which  their  manacles  have 
been  "  torn  off"  is  sufficiently  illustrated  in  the  following 
passage,  quoted  by  the  Edinburgh  Review,  with  full  approba 
tion,  from  a  Report  of  the  African  Institution,  for  the  year 
1815.  "  In  what  country,  accursed  with  slavery,  is  this  sink 
ing  fund  of  mercy,  this  favour  of  the  laws  to  human  redemp 
tion,  manumission,  taken  away!  Where,  by  an  opprobrious 
reversal  of  legislative  maxims,  ancient  and  modern,  do  the 
lawgivers  rivet,  instead  of  relaxing,  the  fetters  of  private 
bondage,  stand  between  the  slave  and  the  liberality  of  his 
master,  by  prohibiting  enfranchisements,  and  labour  as  much 
as  in  them  lies,  to  make  that  dreadful,  odious  state  of  man, 
which  they  have  formed,  eternal?  Shame  and  horror  must 
not  deter  us  from  revealing  the  truth.  It  is  in  the  dominions 
of  Great  Britain.  This  abuse  has  been  reserved  for  assem 
blies,  convened  by  the  British  crown,  and  subject  to  the  con 
trol  of  Parliament." 

In  the  article  on  Birbeck,  the  negro-slavery  of  the  United 
States  is  spoken  of,  and  with  great  truth,  as  existing  "  in  a 
form  by  far  the  most  mitigated ,"  and  it  is  unanswerably  aksed, 
"  Who  can  compare  the  state  of  the  slave  in  the  sugar  islands 
with  that  in  North  America?"  In  the  article  of  the  50th 
number,  on  the  general  Registry  of  slaves,  all  idea  of  emanci 
pating  those  of  the  British  West  Indies  is  peremptorily  dis 
claimed,  in  the  name  of  the  English  abolitionists;  and  the 
Reviewer  adds,  ''Unprepared  for  freedom  as  the  unhappy 
victims  of  our  oppression  and  rapacity  now  are,  the  attempts 
to  bestow  it  on  them  at  once,  could  only  lead  to  their  own  aug 
mented  misery,  and  involve  both  master  and  slave  in  one  common 
ruin."  The  sagacity  which  provided  this  just  reflection  in 
i'avour  of  Great  Britain  and  the  West  India  legislature,  might 
have  discovered  the  same  apology  for  the  southern  states  of 
America,  and  arrested  the  unqualified  sentence  pronounced 
upon  them. 

In  truth,  all  this  sudden  pother  about  the  bare  continued 
existence  of  domestic  slavery  in  this  country,  may  be  at  once 
understood  to  be  mere  parade,  if  not  artifice,  on  a  reference 
to  the  tenor  of  the  article  in  the  first  number  of  the  Review. 


238  HOSTILITIES  OP  TIIL 

PART  i.  concerning  the  Sugar  Colonies.  The  object  of  that  artici  j 
v-*~>^^  \vas  to  show,  that  u  the  subdivision  of  the  negroes  of  the 
West  Indies,  under  the  power  of  masters  armed  with  abso 
lute  power,"  had  become  an  indispensable  policy  r<»r  Great 
Britain;  that  "the  regulation  of  the  treatment  of  th-  slaves'" 
ought  to  be  left  to  the  colonial  legislatures;  and,  principal!}, 
that  Great  Britain  should  assist  the  consular  government  of 
France  (alias  Bonaparte)  in  the  attempt  to  reduce  the  negroes 
of  St.  Domingo  to  their  previous  state  of  bondage;  to  "  their 
cane-pieces,  coffee-grounds  and  spice-walks."  The  cham 
pions  of  universal  emancipation,  who  now,  in  the  fervour  of 
their  apostleship,  proclaim  it  to  be  "  the  consummation  of 
wickedness,"  on  our  part,  to  tolerate  even  the  existence  of 
slavery  in  our  southern  states,  had,  then,  so  little  presentiment 
of  their  vocation,  or  susceptibility  to  the  impressions  which 
slavery,  "  in  the  most  mitigated  form,"  makes  upon  them 
now,  as  they  contemplate  this  republic,  that  they  were  eager 
for  its  revival  in  its  severest  form,  and  on  a  very  extensive 
scale,  in  St.  Domingo;  because  the  independence  of  the  ne 
groes  of  that  island  seemed  to  threaten  the  security  of  tho 
trade  which  supplied  in  part  "our  (the  British)  fleet  with 
seamen  and  our  (the  British)  exchequer  with  millions."  The 
article  in  question  calculates  sanguinely  and  argumentatively 
the  advantage  secured  to  Great  Britain,  on  the  supposition 
that  "  France  had  completely  succeeded  in  her  colonial  mea 
sures,  and,  with  whatever  perfidy  and  cruelty,  restored  the 
slavery  of  the  negroes."  And  it  is  curious  to  remark  the  Ian 
guage  held  in  relation  to  the  beings,  for  whose  fate  with  us,  so 
profound  and  resentful  a  compassion  is  now  expressed. 

"  The  negroes  are  truly  the  Jacobins  of  the  West  India 
islands — they  are  the  anarchists,  the  terrorists,  the  domestic 
enemy.  Against  them  it  becomes  rival  nations  to  combine, 
and  hostile  governments  to  coalesce.  If  Prussia  and  Austria 
felt  their  existence  to  depend  on  an  union  against  the  revolu 
tionary  arms  in  Europe,  (and  who  does  not  lament  that  their 
coalition  was  not  more  firm  and  enlightened?)  a  closer  alli 
ance  is  imperiously  recommended  to  France,  and  Britain,  and 
Spain,  and  Holland,  against  the  common  enemy  of  civilized 
society,  the  destroyer  of  the  European  name  in  the  new  world." 
"  We  have  the  greatest  sympathy  for  the  unmerited  suffer 
ings  of  the  unhappy  negroes  ;  we  detest  the  odious  traffic  which 
has  poured  their  myriads  into  the  Antilles;  but  ice  must  be  per 
mitted  to  feel  some  tenderness  for  our  European  brethren,  al 
though  they  are  white  and  civilized,  and  to  deprecate  that  incon 
sistent  spirit  of  canting  philanthropy,  which  in  Europe  is  only 


BRITISH    REVIEWS, 


239 


r.xcited  by  the  wrongs  or  miseries  of  the  poor  and  the  profligate;  SEC.  Yll. 
and,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  is  never  warmed  but  to-  ^-^^^ 
wards  the  savage,  the  mulatto,  and  the  slave!! 

"  Admitting  all  that  has  been  urged  against  the  planters  and 
their  African  providers,  we  are  much  of  the  opinion  which 
Lord  Bacon  has  expressed  in  the  following  sentence  : — c  It  is 
the  sinfullest  thing  in  the  world  to  forsake  a  plantation  once 
in  forwardness;  for,  besides  the  dishonour,  it  is  the  guiltiness 
of  the  blood  of  many  commiserable  persons.5 ' 

The  Edinburgh  Review  is  as  much  at  variance  with  itself, 
touching  the  points  of  the  felicity  and  humanity  of  Great  Bri 
tain,  as  in  that  of  her  being  the  dispenser  of  universal  freedom. 
As  far  as  the  acknowledgment  of  overspreading  pauperism 
may  be  considered  as  an  acknowledgment  of  national  wretch 
edness,  we  have  it  ija  repeated  instances.  In  the  58th  number, 
this  evil  is  represented  as  "  the  menacing  hydra  who  swells 
so  gigantically  and  stalks  so  largely  over  the  face  of  the  British 
land."  That  this  hydra  had  left  the  land,  or  had  ceased  to 
swell  and  expatiate,  when  the  critic  wrote  the  phrase  "  it 
would  be  madness  not  to  admit  England  to  be  a  very  happy 
country,"  no  one  acquainted  with  the  progress  of  her  affairs 
could  be  bold  enough  to  affirm.  With  respect  to  her  humanity, 
it  is  strangely  emblazoned  in  the  abstracts  and  opinions  which 
the  Edinburgh  Review  has  given,  of  the  resistance  to  the  abo 
lition  of  the  slave  trade;  of  her  administration  of  Ireland  and 
India;  of  her  penal  code;  of  the  state  of  her  public  charities, 
her  prisons,  her  hospitals,  and  of  the  character  of  the  ministry 
whom  she  suffers  to  remain  in  power.  A  single  passage,  which 
I  take  from  their  volume  for  1817,  may  serve  to  show  how 
the  critics  vindicate,  in  the  detail,  the  reputation  of  superior 
humanity  which  they  assert  in  the  gross,  for  their  country:— 

"  The  condition  of  pauper  lunatics,  in  public  institutions, 
is  shown  sufficiently,  by  what  has  been  already  said.  At  pri 
vate  mad-houses,  the  management  of  the  poor  was  no  better. 
At  Talbot's,  Bethnal  Green,  where  the  number  was  230,  and 
at  Rhodes's,  Bethnal  Green,  where  275  paupers  were  crowd 
ed  together,  there  is  proof  of  circumstances  that  deserve  se 
vere  censure.  At  Miles,  Worston,  of  486  patients,  300  were 
kept  wholly  without  medical  attention  to  their  mental  disor 
der.  The  case  is  nearly  the  same  throughout  the  whole  of  Eng 
land;  and  the  sheriff  of  Edinburghshire  states,  that  u  in  no 
instance  did  he  find  a  pauper  lunatic  treated  with  kindness;  m 
several,  marked  inhumanity  was  observable." 

In  remarking,  in  reference  to  the  United  States,  that  "it  is 
not  pleasant  to  emigrate  to  a  country  ef  changes  and  revolv- 


940  HOSTILITIES    OP    THE 

PA  in'  i.  /ion,"  the  same  critics  add,  to  enforce  their  observation—  • 
^^~>^>w  "then  we  have  a  parliament  of  inestimable  value."  In  con 
firmation  of  this  discovery,  I  will  appeal  to  the  authority  of 
a  late  leader  of  the  party  to  which  they  belong, — a  man 
whose  superlative  judgment  and  candour  they  have  celebrated 
without  bounds. 

Sir  S.  Ilomiliy  said — *  "Let  us  recollect  that  we  are  the  parliament 
•which,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  this  country,  twice  suspended 
the  habeas  corpus  act  in  a  period  of  profound  peace.  Let  us  recollect 
that  we  are  the  confiding  parliament  which  entrusted  his  majesty's 
ministers  with  the  authority  emanating1  from  that  suspension,  in  expec 
tation  that  when  it  was  no  longer  wanted,  they  would  call  parliament 
together  to  surrender  it  into  their  hands — which  those  ministers  did 
not  do,  although  they  subsequently  acknowledged  that  the  necessit r 
ibr  retaining  that  power  had  long  ceased  to  exist.  Let  us  recollect  that 
we  are  the  same  parliament  which  consented  to  indemnify  his  majesty's 
ministers  for  the  abuses  and  violations  of  the  law  of  which  they  had 
been  guilty,  in  the  exercise  of  the  authority  vested  in  them.  Let  us 
recollect  that  we  are  the  same  parliament  which  refused  to  inquire  int  » 
the  grievances  stated  in  the  numerous  petitions  and  memorials  with 
which  otir  table  groaned — that  we  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  complaints 
of  the  oppressed — that  we  even  amused  ourselves  with  their  sufferings, 
Let  us  recollect  that  we  are  the  same  parliament  which  sanctioned  the 
use  of  spies  and  informers  by  the  British  government — debasing  that, 
government,  once  so  celebrated  for  good  faith  and  honour,  into  a  con 
dition  lower  in  character  than  that  of  the  ancient  French  police.  Ler 
us  recollect  that  we  are  the  same  parliament  which  sanctioned  the  issu 
ing  of  a  circular  letter  to  the  magistracy  of  the  country,  by  a  secretary 
of  state,  urging  them  to  hold  persons  to  bail  for  libel  before  an  indict 
ment,  was  found.  Let  us  recollect  that  we  are  the  same  parliament 
which  sanctioned  the  sending  out  of  the  opinion  of  the  king's  attorney 
general  and  the  king's  solicitor-general,  as  the  law  of  the  land.  Le~ 
us  recollect  that  we  are  the  same  parliament  which  sanctioned  the 
shutting  of  the  ports  of  this  once  hospitable  nation  to  unfortunate  fo 
reigners  flying  from  persecution  in  their  own  country.  This,  Sir,  h 
what  we  have  done  ;  and  we  are  about  to  crown  all  by  the  present  mos: 
violent  and  most  unjustifiable  act  (the  alien  act).  Who  our  successors 
maybe  I  know  not;  but  God  grant  that  this  country  may  never  sec 
another  parliament  as  regardless  of  the  liberties  and  rights  of  the  peo- 
pie,  and  of  the  principles  of  general  justice,  as  this  parliament  ha; 
been !" 

As  an  American,  I  may  be  excused,  if,  yielding  to  the  pro 
vocation  of  such  language  as  that  of  the  Edinburgh  Review. 
1  dwell  a  little  longer,  in  this  place,  upon  the  evidence  of  the 
more  perfect  freedom  and  tender  humanity  of  Great  Britain, 
which  is  to  be  collected  from  other  sources.  It  has  been  the 
uniform  cry  of  the  leading  members  of  the  opposition  in  par 
liament,  as  well  as  of  the  Scottish  journal,  that  the  ministry 
could  at  any  time  find  a  majority  to  enable  them  to  suspend 
the  habeas  corpus  act;  and  the  same  authorities  have  concurred 
in  the  assertions  that  when  the  habeas  corpus  act  was  suspend - 

*  Debate  of  June  15,  1818,  House  of  Commons. 


BfclflSH   REVIEWS* 

sd,  there  was  no  difference  between  the  government  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  rule  of  the  most  despotic  sovereign;  that  the 
power  which  a  minister  had  of  committing  to  prison  on  such 
occasions,  was  quite  as  great  and  as  dangerous,  as  that  of  the 
lettres  de  cachet,  so  celebrated  in  the  annals  of  France.  The 
last  British  parliament,  dissolved  in  1818,  suspended  the  ha 
beas  corpus  twice — in  a  time  of  profound  peace  with  foreign 
nations,  Lord  Castlereagh  averring  on  the  second  occasion, 
that  unless  the  measure  were  adopted,  "a  bloody  and  disastrous 
catastrophe  was  to  be  expected." 

The  state  of  things  during  the  suspension  will  be  made  suf 
ficiently  known,  by  a  few  quotations  from  the  debates  in  Parlia 
ment  on  the  subject,  and  will  show  the  real  value  of  the  boast 
for  England,  that  "the greatest  lord  dare  not  lay  a  finger  upon 
the  meanest  peasant." 

Lord  Holland  said  (Feb.  19th,  1818)  "that  forty  British  subjects  had 
been,  during  the  suspension  of  1817,  immured  in  prisons  and  discharged 
without  any  trial." 

Lord  A."  Hamilton  said  (Feb.  10th,  1818)  "that  government  had 
avowedly  employed  spies  and  informers,*  who,  it  was  generally  ad 
mitted,  had,  in  many  cases,  fomented  the  evil  which  it  was  the  object 
to  counteract.  And  he  begged  now  to  notice  the  lamentable  condition 
to  which  suspected  persons,  innocent  or  guilty,  were  thus  reduced  in 
this  frank  and/ree  country.  Any  man  was  liable,  on  the  information  ot* 
these  fomenting  instead  of  detecting  spies — out  of  malice  or  to  earn 
their  pay — to  be  taken  by  secret  warrant — to  secret  imprisonment — to 
distant  gaol — all  access  denied  him  'for  fear  of  tampering* — a  law 
officer  to  threaten  or  bribe — some  accomplice  to  give  agreeable  evi 
dence — under  such  circumstances,  what  chance  had  he  of  bare  justice, 
much  less  of  successfully  encountering  his  enemies.  Such  proceedings 
were  in  direct  opposition  to  all  that  they  had  been  accustomed  to  vene 
rate  in  the  British  constitution." 

Mr.  Fazakerley  said  (Feb.  llth,  1818)  "that  during  the  suspension 
of  the  habeas  corpus,  the  powers  with  which  it  invested  government 
were  by  no  means  sparingly  used.  The  gaols  were  filled  with  suspect 
ed  individuals,  apprehended  probably  on  the  information  of  spies;  and 
many  persons  were  thus,  in  all  probability,  made  the  victims  of  the 
crimes  of  others.  The  various  provinces  witnessed  the  novel  sight,  of 
state  prisoners,  itinerant  state  prisoners,  carried  about  from  one  place 
to  another.  Not  that  alone — they  saw  them  loaded  with  irons  and 
placed  in  close  confinement." 

Sir  F.  Burdett  observed  (March  llth,  1818)  "that  no  contradiction 
had  been  attempted  of  the  allegation,  that  men  who  had  not  been 
found  guilty  of  any  offence — who  were  merely  accused,  and,  it  was  to 
be  presumed,  wrongfully,  as  they  were  subsequently  discharged, — 
were  confined  in  solitary  cells,  and  loaded  with  irons.  In  one  instance 

*  The  Earl  of  Westmoreland,  one  of  the  ministry,  observed,  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  5th  March,  1818,  "that  spies  and  informers  hud,  from 
the  earliest  periods  of  history,  been  the  objects  of  popular  dislike. 
But  he  believed  that  no  government  had  ever  existed  by  which  they 
had  not  been  used,  and  that  hardly  any  conspiracy  or  treason  had  ever 
been  detected  and  punished  without  their  aid," 

VOL.  I.— H  h 


242  HOSTILITIES   OF    THE 

PART  I.    two  of  these  unfortunate  individuals  were  chained  together,  compelled 
v.^"v^x-/  mutually  to  bear  all  the  Infirmities  of  human  nature;  a  most  inhuman 
practice,  and  one  to  which  a  tyrant  of  old  is  said  to  have  resorted  as  to 
a  refinement  of  cruelty." 

Sir  S.  "Romilly  referred  to  "the  petitions  of  the  two  hooksellers  a: 
Warrington,  who  being-  charged  with  no  higher  offence  than  the  pub 
lishing  of  a  libel,  had  hail  their  houses  searched,  their  books  and  paper? 
seized,  and  had  been  themselves  loaded  with  irons  ;ike  felons,  and 
committed  to  the  house  of  correction,  and  kept  to  hard  labour,  befor; 
any  trial  had  taken  place." 

"There  was  another  case  of  the  same  kind,"  he  continued,  "but  rf 
st'dl  greater  cruelty  It  was  the  case  of  a  man  of  the  name  of  Swir- 
dells,  whose  house  had  been  broken  open  in  the  dead  of  night,  an<l 
his  books  and  papers  seized  His  wife  was  at  the  time  far  advance' I 
in  her  pregnancy;  the  terror  produced  a  premature  labour,  whic'i 
caused  the  death  of  herself  and  of  the  child  ;  and  another  infant,  thi 
only  remains  of  the  unhappy  man's  family,  was,  when  he  was  dragge  I 
to  gaol,  conveyed  to  the  parish  workhouse,  and  from  thence,  in  a  shoit. 
time,  to  the  parish  burying  ground.  The  man,  however,  had  bee  i 
guilty  of  no  crime.  His"  family  was  destroyed — he  was  himself  du  - 
charged  from  prison,  impoverished,  ruined,  a  widower,  and  childless, 
because  some  unfounded  charge  had  been  brought  against  him." 

Lord  Holland  said  (Feb.  27th,  1818)  "that  the  noble  duke  who  hai 
introduced  the  present  bill  (indemnity  bill)  had  treated  the  subject 
rather  lightly,  by  saying,  that  the  government  under  the  suspension  act. 
'had  merely  abstracted  a  few  individuals,  for  a  time,  from  society  ' 
So  then,  you  take  men  from  their  family,  friends,  and  employments  • 
you  immure  them  in  dungeons;  vou  doom  them  to  solitary  confine 
ment  for  months;  you  expose  their  persons  to  every  species  of  hart.- 
ship,  and  their  characters  to  every  kind  of  suspicion,  and  you  call  this 
'  only  abstracting  a  few  individuals  from  society  for  a  time.'  " 

In  March,  1817,  an  act  was  passed  by  the  Parliament, — 
"the  seditious  meetings  hill," — declaring  in  the  case  of  any 
public  meeting,  the  punishment  of  death  without  benefit  of 
clergy,  for  non-compliance  with  the  order  of  a  simple  magis 
trate  to  disperse.  At  that  period,  there  were  no  less  than  two 
hundred  crimes,  besides  murder,  treason,  and  burglary,  legally 
punishable  with  death;  and  sixty  of  them  had  been  made 
capital  in  the  reign  of  George  III.;  seventeen  of  these  by  one 
act;  and,  of  the  number,  one  was  for  shooting  a  man;  another 
the  killing  of  a  rabbit;  a  third,  trying  to  kill  a  man  in  his  bed; 
and  a  fourth,  cutting  down  heads  of  fish-ponds.  To  this  list 
of  capital  offences  may  be  added  cutting  a  hop-bine,  or  an  or 
namental  tree  in  gentlemen's  grounds;  going  to  a  masquerade 
with  the  face  blacked,  and  many  others  of  a  similar  cast  which 
are  detailed  in  the  speeches  of  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  and  Sir 
James  Mackintosh,  on  the  British  penal  code. 

By  the  Marriage  Act  five  capital  felonies  are  created  in  one 
line.  From  official  evidence  presented  to  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  it  appears,  that  nineteen  persons,  and  occasionally 
twenty-one,  have  been  executed  on  the  same  day  in  London. 
We  have  an  instance,  within  the  three  years  last  past,  of  a 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 


243 


woman  of  the  name  of  Mary  R;.  an,  who  had  assisted  her  bus-  SFC  VH. 
band  in  an  attempt  lo  escape  iVom  Newgate,  being  brough;  to  ^^^^^ 
the  bar  for  this  oifence,  a  few  hours  after  she  saw  him  carried 
to  execution;  and  tried  and  condemned  with  her  infant  at  her 
breast,  no  withstanding,  as  Sir  James  Mackintosh  stated  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  that  she  was,  from  the  delirium  of 
her  grief,  as  incapable  of  proceeding  on  her  defence,  or  of  ex 
tenuating  her  act,  as  if  she  were  in  a  state  of  confirmed  insa 
nity.  Mr.  Scarlett,  a  distinguished  barrister,  and  member  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  asserted,  in  his  place,  without  contra 
diction,  (on  the  2d  March,  1819,)  that  if  there  was  any  coun 
try  more  disgraced  by  sanguinary  enactments  than  another,  it 
was  England.  To  illustrate  further  the  recklessness  of  the 
legislature  in  such  enactments,  and  the  nature  of  the  admoni 
tion  to  which  it  has  remained  insensible,  I  will  extract  from 
the  parliamentary  history,  part  of  a  speecii  delivered  in  '.he 
House  of  Commons  by  a  member  of  high  standing,  the  13ih 
of  May,  1777,  on  the  occasion  of  a  bill  for  the  better  securing 
dock  yards,  &c.  by  *he  punishment  of  death. 

Sir  William  Meredith  said, 

"  Had  it  been  fairly  stated,  and  specifically  pointed  out,  what 
the  mischief  of  coining  silver  in  the  utmost  extent  is,  the  hang 
ing  bill  on  that  subject  might  not  have  been  so  readily  adopted; 
under  the  name  of  treason  it  found  an  easy  passage.  I  indeed, 
have  always  understood  treason  to  be  nothing  less  than  some 
act  or  conspiracy  against  the  life  or  honour  of  the  king,  and 
the  safety  of  the  state;  but  what  the  king  or  state  can  suffer 
by  my  taking  now  and  then  a  bad  sixpence,  or  a  bad  shilling, 
I  cannot  imagine.  By  this  nickname  of  treason,  however, 
there  lies  at  this  moment  in  Newgate,  under  sentence  to  be 
burnt  alive,  a  girl  just  turned  of  14;  at  her  master's  bidding 
she  hid  some  whitewashed  farthings  behind  her  stays,  on 
which  the  jury  found  her  guilty  as  an  accomplice  with  her 
master  in  the  treason.  The  master  was  hanged  last  Wednes 
day;  and  the  faggots  all  lay  ready  for  her;  no  reprieve  came 
till  just  as  the  cart  was  setting  out,  and  the  girl  would  have 
been  burnt  alive  on  the  same  day,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
humane  but  casual  interference  of  Lord  Weymouth.  Good 
God!  Sir,  are  we  taught  to  execrate  the  fires  of  Smithfield, 
while  we  are  lighting  them  now  to  burn  a  poor  harmless  child 
for  hiding  a  whitewashed  farthing!  And  yet  this  barbarous 
sentence,  which  ought  to  make  men  shudder  at  the  thought  of 
shedding  blood  for  such  trivial  causes,  is  brought  as  a  reason 
for  more  hanging  and  burning," 


244  HOSTILITIES    OF    THE 

PARTI.  "When  a  member  of  Parliament  brings  in  a  new  hanging 
*-^»~v-^-'  law,  he  begins  with  mentioning  some  injury  that  maybe  done 
to  private  property,  for  which  a  man  is  not  yet  liable  to  be 
hanged,  and  then  proposes  the  gallows  as  the  specific,  infalli 
ble  means  of  cure  and  prevention;  but  the  bill  in  its  progress 
often  makes  crimes  capital,  that  scarce,  deserve  whipping. 
For  instance,  the  shop-lifting  act  was  to  prevent  bankers'  and 
silver-smiths',  and  other  shops,  where  there  are  commonly 
goods  of  great  value,  from  being  robbed;  but  it  goes  so  far, 
as  to  make  it  death  to  lift  any  thing  off  a  counter  with  ai, 
intent  to  steal.  Under  this  act,  one  Mary  Jones  was  executed, 
whose  case  I  shall  just  mention:  it  was  at  the  time  whei 
press  warrants  were  issued  on  the  alarm  about  Falkland's 
Islands.  The  woman's  husband  was  pressed;  their  goodr 
seized  for  some  debts  of  his,  and  she,  with  two  small  child 
ren,  turned  into  the  streets  a-begging.  It  is  a  circumstance 
not  to  be  forgotten,  that  she  was  very  young,  (under  nineteen" 
and  most  remarkably  handsome.  She  went  to  a  linen-dra 
per's  shop,  took  some  coarse  linen  off  the  counter,  and  sloped 
it  under  her  cloak;  the  shopman  saw1  her,  and  she  laid  it 
down:  for  this  she  was  hanged!  Her  defence  was,  (I  have 
the  trial  in  my  pocket)  c  That  she  had  lived  in  credit,  and 
wanted  for  nothing,  till  a  press-gang  came  and  stole  her  hus 
band  from  her;  but  since  then,  she  had  no  bed  to  lie  on;  no 
thing  to  give  her  children  to  eat;  and  they  were  almost  naked v 
and  perhaps  she  might  have  done  something  wrong,  for  she 
hardly  knew  what  she  did.'  The  parish  officers  testified  to 
the  truth  of  this  story;  but  it  seems,  there  had  been  a  good 
deal  of  shop-lifting  about  Ludgate;  an  example  was  thought 
necessary,  and  this  woman  was  hanged  for  the  comfort  and 
satisfaction  of  some  shopkeepers  in  Ludgate-street.  When 
brought  to  receive  sentence,  she  behaved  in  such  a  frantic 
manner,  as  proved  her  mind  to  be  in  a  distracted  and  despond 
ing  state;  and  the  child  was  sucking  at  her  breast  when  she  set 
out  for  Tyburn." 

u  But  for  what  cause  was  God's  creation  robbed  of  this  its 
noblest  work?  It  was  for  no  injury;  but  for  a  mere  attempt 
to  clothe  two  naked  children  by  unlawful  means.  Compare 
this,  with  what  the  state  did,  and  with  what  the  law  did. 
The  state  bereaved  the  woman  of  her  husband,  and  the  child 
ren  of  a  father,  who  was  all  their  support;  the  law  deprived 
the  woman  of  her  life,  and  the  children  of  their  remaining 
parent,  exposing  them  to  every  danger,  insult,  and  merciless 
treatment,  that  destitute  and  helpless  orphans  suffer.  Take 
all  the  circumstances  together,  I  do  not  believe  that  a  fouler 


BRITISH    REVIEWS. 

murder  was  ever  committed  against  law,  than  the  murder  of  SEC.VH. 
this  woman  by  law.  Some  who  hear  me,  are  perhaps  blam 
ing  the  judges,  the  jury,  and  the  hangman;  but  neither  the 
judge,  jury  nor  hangman  are  to  blame;  they  are  but  ministe 
rial  agents;  the  true  hangman  is  the  member  of  parliament; 
he  who  frames  the  bloody  law  is  answerable  for  all  the  blood 
that  is  shed  under  it.  I  cannot  find  in  history  any  example  of 
such  laws  as  ours,  except  a  code  that  was  framed  at  Athens 
by  Draco." 

Not  merely  the  act  of  killing,  but  the  mere  attempt  to  kill 
game  at  night,  in  an  enclosed  place,  is  felony  subject  to  trans 
portation  for  seven  years,  under  the  monstrous  system  of  game 
laws.  In  1816,  according  to  official  returns  made  to  Parlia 
ment,  twelve  hundred  persons  were  immured  in  various  parts 
of  the  kingdom,  for  offences  against  those  laws,  to  the  utter 
ruin  and  overwhelming  distress  of  many  hundreds  of  poor 
families.  The  preservation  of  game  for  the  tables  of  the  rich, 
is  the  equivalent  for  this  mass  of  human  misery,  which,  at  the 
same  time,  confessedly  leads  to  a  depravation  of  morals  among 
the  lower  orders,  considerably  greater  in  the  proportion. 

One  of  the  most  respectable  British  Journals,  Bell's  Weekly 
Messenger,  June  22d,  1818,  holds  this  language  : 

"  We  have  often  had  occasion  to  say.  and  we  shall  repeat 
it,  that  in  no  country  in  the  world  is  the  revenue  so  mercilessly 
collected  and  enforced  as  in  England.  In  no  country  in  the 
world  is  less  conceded  to  private  distress."  The  critics  of 
Edinburgh  can  hardly  claim  for  Scotland  an  exemption  from 
this  last  reproach,  if  we  are  to  credit  the  details  given  in  the 
following  extract  from  the  "Proceedings  of  the  House  of  Com 
mons"  for  the  30th  April,  1818. 

"Mr.  Findlay  rose  to  move  for  a  return  of  the  number  of 
prisoners  confined  for  small  debts  in  the  several  prisons  of 
Scotland.  The  House,  he  was  persuaded,  could  hardly  ima 
gine  the  degree  of  misery  which  the  prisoners  alluded  to  were 
condemned  to  suffer,  and  when  the  numbers  who  thus  suffered 
were  taken  into  account,  combined  with  the  insignificant  debls 
for  which  they  suffered,  its  astonishment  must  be  excited, 
while  its  feelings  must  be  severely  afflicted.  In  the  prisons 
of  Glasgow  alone,  there  were  last  year  no  less  than  ninety- 
three  persons  confined  for  sums  under  one  pound,  and  it  was 
to  be  recollected  that  not  one  of  those  was  likely  to  come  out 
of  prison,  without  having  his  morals  polluted  by  the  persons 
he  was  obliged  to  associate  with,  while  in  prison.  The  whole 
number  of  prisoners  thus  confined  in  all  the  Scottish  prisons, 
amounted,  he  had  reason  to  believe,  to  several  hundreds,  while 


246  HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 

PART  I  he  apprehended  that  those  confined  for  sums  under  ^f», 
amounted  to  some  thousands.  He  had  also  to  observe  tkt 
none  of  these  poor  prisoners  were  entitled  to  any  prison  allow 
ance  or  succour,  uniil  ten  days  after  their  committal,  while 
the  receipt  of  each  afterwards  was  only  4rf.  per  day.  Yet 
the  creditor  could  not  commit  one  of  these  prisoners,  without 
expending  ten  shillings,  nor  could'lhe  debtor  be  released  with 
out  paying  six  shillings." 

Some  more  extracts  from  the  parliamentary  debates  of  the 
two  last  years,  will  restore  the  balance  between  England  an  1 
our  southern  states,  according  to  the  mode  of  account  opene-l 
by  the  Edinburgh  Review,  in  the  article  on  Fearon's  Travele. 

Lord  R.  Seymour  observed  (June  17th,  1817)  "that  gentlemen  net 
conversant  with  parish  workhouses,  were  not  aware  how  harshly  th  3 
pauper  lunatics  were  treated  in  them.  To  prevent  their  escape,  the/ 
were  consigned  to  the  constant  wear  of  the  strait  waistcoat,  and  this 
being1,  of  all  instruments  of  persona!  restraint,  the  most  heating  an<l 
irritating1,  the  poor  lunatic  in  it  becomes  clamorous  and  noisy  ;  when  t  > 
prevent  his  annoying  his  neighbour  by  his  noise,  the  lancet  was  applied 
to  him,  by  which  he  was  not  unfrequently  reduced  to  a  state  of  exhaus 
tion." 

Mr.  Bennet  presented  (Feb.  1st,  1819)  "a  petition  from  Dr.  Halloran, 
now  under  sentence  of  transportation  for  seven  years,  for  forging  u 
frank  to  a  letter,  complaining  of  the  hardships  and  cruelties  to  which 
he  was  exposed.  This  case,"  the  honourable  member  observed,  "  had 
excited  a  good  deal  of  interest,  and  very  naturally,  from  the  dispropor 
tion  between  the  offence  and  the  penalty,  and  in  reply,  it  was  said  that; 
Dr.  Halloran's  character  was  very  questionable,  and  that  he  was  no 
clergyman,  &c.  If  the  individual  had  assumed  a  character  to  which  he. 
was  not  entitled,  why  was  he  not  prosecuted  accordingly  ?  but  as  the 
case  now  stood,  it  would  appear  as  if  the  man  were  tried  for  one  thing, 
and  punished  on  account  of  another.  After  mentioning  the  severe 
treatment  to  which  Dr.  H.  had  been  exposed  before  trial,  in  being  con 
fined  among  the  most  horrible  characters,  the  honourable  member  pro 
ceeded  to  give  an  account  of  the  convict  vessel  in  which  this  individual 
was  now  confined  ;  a  statement,  which  he  begged  the  House  to  under 
stand,  he  made  from  his  own  personal  observation.  Dr.  II.  was  con* 
veved  to  the  hulks  in  an  open  boat,  when  extremely  ill.  and  left  in  what 
was  called  a  cabin,  but  what  he  (Mr.  B.)  should  term  a  hole  or  dungeon, 
for  nineteen  hours,  without  any  one  going  to  him,  saying  nothing  of  the 
absence  of  medical  aid;  he  was  placed  in  a  hole  or  dungeon  with  twenty 
other  convicts — the  division  being  twelve  feet  squaw.  In  this  hole  or 
dungeon  were  cribs  six  and  a  half  feet  long  and  five  and  a  half  feet 
broad;  and  into  one  of  these  cribs  six  human  beings  were  stowed 
Here  they  passed  the  night  without  the  opportunity  of  turning. 

The  honourable  member  added,  that  when  he  examined  this  vessel. 
he  was  compelled  to  have  the  aid  of  a  candle  ;  and  he  not  only  found 
the  cabins  limited  and  confined,  as  already  described,  but  they  were 
dirty  and  loathsome  in  the  extreme.  Such  a  sight  was  abominable  to  i< 
country  calling  itself  Christian,  and  particularly  so  to  a  government  that 
was  peculiarly  Christian.  The  description  of  the  inside  of  a  black 
slave  ship  had  recently  excited  a  good  deal  of  interest,  not  only  in  Eng 
land,  but  throughout  Europe.  But  what  would  the  house  say  when  they 
learned  that  the  inside  of  this  white  slave  ship  was  worse  than  that  of  ii 
black  slave  ship.  According  to  the  section  of  the  latter  vessel,  the 


BRITISH   REVIEWS,  247 

blacks  had  one  foot  six  inches  breadth  of  reposing1  room  ;  but  the  white  SEC.  VII. 
slave  ship  only  offered  one  foot  one  inch.  He  described  what  he  had  ^^^^_  -^_- 
seen — he  pledged  himself  for  the  truth  of  what  he  stated." 

Mr.  B.  Bathurst  (one  of  the  ministry)  "did  not  mean  to  deny,  that 
there  might  be  merit  due  to  the  honourable  member  for  his  active  and 
personal  interference.  Respecting  the  conditions  of  the  vessels,  those 
who  were  condemned  to  them  must  expect  many  privations  and  hard 
ships,  and  the  ships  -were  snch  as  had  loiur  been  used.  The  arguments 
were  therefore  against  the  system,  not  against  the  particular  case.  The 
convict  ships  were  now  fitted  up  in  the  way  in  which  they  ahvays  had 
bee?i" 

Mr  Bennetsaid  (April  3d,  1819)  "the  House  was  aware  that  Ilches- 
ter  returned  two  members  to  parliament;  it  was  a  patronised  place  ;  or, 
in  other  words,  if  he  might  be  permitted  to  use  them,  it  was  the  pro 
perty  of  a  particular  family.  It  appeared  from  the  petition  which  he 
held  in  his  hands,  that  the  proprietor  thought  a  small  number  of  con 
stituents  more  advantageous ;  and,  to  accomplish  this  object,  he  had 
pulled  down  a  number  of  houses,  by  which  about  one  hundred  fami 
lies  had  been  driven  from  their  homes,  and  were  received  into  a  sort  of 
temporary  poor-house,  where  they  were  sheltered  for  a  time,  yet  only 
eighteen  or  twenty  of  them  had  been  paupers,  the  rest  maintaining 
themselves  by  honest  industry.  Notice  was  however  given,  in  conse 
quence  of  prevailing  political  dissensions,  that  these  unhappy  families 
would  be  deprived  of  even  that  shelter;  the  parish  resisted,  and  an 
ejectment  being  brought,  they  were  finally  turned  out;  thus  one  hun 
dred  and  sixty-three  men,  women,  and  children,  from  extreme  infancy 
to  extreme  age,  had  been  driven  into  the  open  streets  in  the  most  in 
clement  season  of  the  year;  some  had  screened  themselves  from  the 
cold,  with  straw  and  hurdles;  some  had  taken  refuge  in  open  stalls  or 
in  the  neighbouring  fields;  and  a  considerable  number  of  old  and  young 
of  both  sexes,  decrepit  old  people  with  helpless  infants  and  women  in 
the  last  stage  of  pregnancy,  had  been  huddled  together  in  the  Town 
Hall  without  distinction.  The  unroofing  of  houses  had  been  heard  of 
as  an  expedient  of  exclusion;  but  it  remained  for  the  agents  of  the 
proprietor  of  this  borough,  to  drive  a  man,  his  wife,  and  five  children 
from  their  dwelling,  by  filling  the  upper  floors  with  dung  and  filth, 
which  oozed  and  dripped  through  the  ceilings." 

7.  Few  of  the  persons  who  may  have  followed  me  thus 
far  in  this  section,  will,  I  apprehend,  any  longer  doubt  that 
"  the  vice  of  impertinence1'  has  "  crept"  into  the  councils  of 
the  Edinburgh  Review,  as  well  as  into  the  British  cabinet; 
that  it  has  actually  "  shared  in  the  odious,  miserable,  vulgar 
spirit  of  abuse"  which  it  alleges  the  opposite  political  sect  to 
be  "fond  of  displaying  against  America;"  that  it  has  never 
even  appeared  to  undertake  her  defence,  but  from  party  feel 
ings  and  views;  and  that  by  perpetually  contradicting  itself 
when  treating  of  her  concerns  or  those  of  England,  it  has 
forfeited  all  claim  to  authority,  on  either  side  of  the  question. 
Its  readers  mav  still  recollect  how  severely  Cobbett  was  han 
dled,  in  the  20th  number,  for  the  "  versatility  of  his  succes 
sive  doctrines;"  and  they  will  readily  apply  the  following 
paragraphs,  with  which  it  concluded  its  collation  of  those 
doctrines. 


248  HOSTILITIES  OP  THE,  &C. 

PART  i.  "  Now,  vvliat  is  it  that  we  infer  from  this  strange  altcrtia* 
v^-v-^'  tion  of  praise  and  blame  in  the  pages  of  Mr.  Cobbetl?  Wly, 
that  nobody  should  care  much  for  either;  that  they  are  he- 
stowed  from  passion  or  party  prejudice,  and  not  from  any 
sound  principles  of  judgment;  and  that  it  must  be  the  most 
foolish  of  all  things,  to  take  oiir  impressions  from  a  imn 
whose  own  opinions  have  not  only  varied,  but  been  absolutely 
reversed,  within  these  four  years." 

u  By  the  uncharitable,  such  a  man  will  always  be  regarded 
as  a  professional  bully,  without  principle  or  sincerity — whose 
services  may  be  bought  by  any  one  who  will  pay  their  price 
to  his  avarice  or  other  passions; — and  the  most  liberal  rm  st 
consider  him  as  a  person  without  any  steadiness  or  depth  of 
judgment; — accustomed  to  be  led  away  by  hasty  views  and 
occasional  impressions; — entitled  to  no  weight  or  authority, 
in  questions  of  delicacy  or  importance; — and  likely  to  he 
found  in  arms  against  his  old  associates,  on  every  material 
change  in  his  own  condition,  or  that  of  the  country." 


249 


SECTION  VIII. 


THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CONTINUED. 

1.  THE  Quarterly  Review  is  an  avowed,  implacable  enemy,  SEC.  VIII. 
and  somewhat  more  important  to  us  in  its  hostilities  than  the  ^~^«^~> 
Edinburgh,  on  account  of  its  intimate  connexion  with  the  Bri 
tish  government.  It  has  constantly  argued  upon  the  general 
question  of  American  concerns,  by  a  reference  to  the  single 
class  of  exceptions,  and  taken  as  the  ground  of  universal 
reprobation,  those  partial  irregularities  in  morals  and  manners, 
which  are  to  be  found  in  every  country,  and  which,  if  they 
were  sufficient  to  warrant  the  charge  of  barbarism  or  depra 
vation  against  a  whole  nation,  would  be  equally  competent  to 
prove  that  there  is  no  civilization  nor  virtue  left  on  the  earth. 

Mr.  Burke  said,  in  his  speech  on  the  Conciliation  with  Ame 
rica — "  I  do  not  know  the  method  of  drawing  up  an  indict 
ment  against  a  whole  people.  I  cannot  insult  and  ridicule 
the  feelings  of  millions  of  my  fellow  creatures.  I  am  not 
ripe  to  pass  sentence  on  the  gravest  public  bodies  entrusted 
with  magistracies  of  great  authority  and  dignity,  and  charged 
with  the  safety  of  their  fellow-citizens,  upon  the  same  title 
as  a  member  of  the  British  parliament."  What  this  elevated 
and  enlightened  personage  thus  declared  himself  incompetent 
to  perform,  is  the  frequent  and  favourite  achievement  of  a 
junto  of  poets  and  politicians  in  London,  who  profess  to  be 
of  the  number  of  his  most  faithful  disciples  and  enthusiastic 
admirers.  What  he  pronounced  to  be  "  for  wise  men,  not 
judicious;  for  sober  men,  not  decent;  for  minds  tinctured 
with  humanity,  not  mild  and  merciful;"  they  can  practise 
without  shame,  even  with  ostentation,  towards  the  same  coun 
try,  the  vilification  of  which  occasioned  his  remarks. 

Opinions  utterly  repugnant  to  each  other;  the  most  intem 
perate  and  incautious  sallies  of  hate  and  jealousy;  allegations 
so  exorbitant  as  at  once  to  betray  and  defeat  the  purpose  of 
the  writers,  characterize  the  articles  of  the  Quarterly  Review 
which  relate  to  the  United  States.  At  the  same  time,  nothing 
is  to  be  found  in  them  of  the  judgment,  humour,  knowledge, 
and  elocution,  which  recommend  other  parts  of  the  Journal. 

VOL.  I.— I  i 


250 


HOSTILITIES    OP    THE 


PARTI.   The  Edinburgh  Review  is  jocose  at  our  expense  through 
**^>^w  pertnes's  and   arrogance;  the   Quarterly  from  national  fears 
and  monarchical  antipathy;  and  the  leer  of  the  one  is,  accord 
ingly,  only  smirking,  while  that  of  the  other  is  Sardonic. 

It  was  utterly  unworthy  of  men  of  high  rank  in  the  world 
of  literature,  and  criticism;  of  political  teachers  of  the  loftiest 
pretensions;  of  wits  claiming  to  be  the  successors  of  the  Swift  > 
and  Arbuthnots;  to  appear  speculating,  and  deciding,  and  jest 
ing  upon  a  great  country,  like  America,  with  such  manuals  a* 
the  travels  of  Ashe,  Janson,  Parkinson,  Fearpn,  illiterate  and 
interested  slanderers,  for  whom  they  could  not  conceal  thei  • 
own  hearty  contempt,  and  whose  publications,  on  any  other 
subject,  they  would  have  cast  from  them  in  disdainful  silence. 
If  it  had  become  necessary,  for  state  purposes,  such  as  th  ^ 
prevention  of  emigration,  the  weakening  of  a  contrast  unfa 
vourable  to  the  British  order  of  things,  and  the  counteraction  cf 
a  dangerous  influence  with  the  nations  of  the  continent, — or  for 
the  gratification  of  a  prurient  wit,  a  restless  arrogance,  or  pri 
vate  political  pique, — that  the  United  States  should  be  reviled 
and  derided,  self-respect  and  sound  policy  exacted  an  exertion 
of  patience  to  await,  or  of  ingenuity  to  contrive,  some  othe/ 
occasion  than  those  afforded  by  reports,  the  whole  cast  and 
tone  of  which,  betrayed  to  the  world,  the  insufficiency  ami 
venality  of  the  authors.     The  British  reviewers  would  have 
consulted  their  own  dignity,  and  the  important  object  of  plau 
sibility  in  their  expositions  of  our  character  and  condition 
more,  had  they  resorted  altogether  for  texts  even  to  the  news 
papers  written  among  us  by  "  the  expatriated  Irishmen  and 
Scotchmen,"  of  whom  the  Edinburgh  Journal  speaks,  rathei 
than  to   books  coarsely  manufactured  in  London,  out  of  the 
meanest  and  flimsiest  materials  brought  thither  by  disappointed 
or  stipendiary  Englishmen,  whose  pursuits  and  views  made  i 
impossible,  for  any  reflecting  person  to  believe,  that  they  hao 
possessed  either  the  opportunity,  capacity,  or  inclination  tc 
represent  the  Americans  justly  and  fairly.     Other  oracles  be 
sides  these;  or  a  course  of  original,  and  well-adjusted  detrac 
tion,  by  argument,  assertion,  and  ridicule,  were  wanting  to 
enable  critics,  of  whatever  general  authority  in  their  voca 
tion,  to  sophisticate  the  feelings,  and  bewilder  the  reason, 
of  mankind,  in  relation  to  the  United  States.     I  question 
whether  a  single  auxiliary  hits  been  raised  on  the  continent  of 
Europe,  for  the  crusade  against  the  American  name,  by  the 
passages  which  I  am  about  to  quote  from  the  Quarterly  Re 
view,  as  samples  of  its  liberality  and  veracity. 


BRITISH    REVIEWS. 

"  An  American's  first  play-thing  is  a  rattle  snake's  tail —  SEC.VIH, 
he  cuts  down  a  tree  on  which  the  wild  pigeons  have  built  v^-v-^- 
their  nests,  and  picks  up  a  horse  load  of  young  birds." 

"  Intoxication  with  the  Americans  is  not  social  hilarity  be 
trayed  into  excess;  it  is  too  rapid  a  process  for  that  interval 
of  generous  feeling  which  tempts  the  European  on.  Their  plea 
sure  is  first  in  the  fiery  stimulus  itself,  not  in  its  effect — not 
in  drunkenness,  but  in  getting  drunk." 

u  Hence  the  ferocity  with  which  the  Americans  decide 
their  quarrels:  their  rough  and  tumbling:  their  biting  and 
lacerating  each  other,  and  their  gouging,  a  diabolical  prac 
tice  which  has  never  disgraced  Europe,  and  for  which  no 
other  people  have  ever  had  a  name."* 

"  Living  in  a  semi-savage  state,  the  greater  part  »/  the 
Americans  are  so  accustomed  to  dispense  with  the  comforts  of 
life  which  they  cannot  obtain,  that  they  have  learned  to  ne 
glect  even  those  decencies  which  are  within  their  reach." 

u  They  have  overrun  an  immense  country,  not  settled  it.  In 
this  as  in  every  thing  else,  the  system  of  things  is  forced  be 
yond  the  age  of  the  colonies." 

"The  manners  are  boorish,  or,  rather,  brutal. **In  America 
nothing  seems  to  be  respected;  there  the  government  is  bet 
ter  than  the  people.  The  want  of  decorum  among  the  Ame 
ricans  is  notimputable  to  their  republican  government;  for  it 
has  not  been  found  in  other  republics';  it  has  proceeded  from 
the  effects  of  the  revolutionary  war,  from  their  premature  in 
dependence,  and  from  that  passion  for  gambling  which  infects 
att  orders  of  men,  clergy  as  well  as  laity,  and  the  legislators  as 
well  as  the  people."* 

u  The  state  of  law  in  America  is  as  deplorable  as  that  of 
religion,  ami  far  from  extraordinary."! 

"  Two  millions  of  slaves  are  now  smarting  under  the  lash 
in  the  American  states:  more  than  three  millions  have  been 
imported  and  sold  in  those  pure  regions  since  the  defeat  of 
Cornwallis."| 

*  No.  4. — Article  on  Holmes's  Annals.     See  Note  R. 

f  No.  6. — Article  on  Northmore's  Washington. 

t  This  allegation  was  made  in  1809,  only  28  years  from  the  period  of 
the  defeat  of  Cornwallis :  so  that  on  an  "average  more  than  10!',000 
must  have  been  annually  imported!  By  the  census  of  the  population 
of  the  United  States  for  1810,  the  whole  number  of  slaves  was  then 
only  1,191,364.  Therefore,  at  least  two  millions  must  have  perished 
among  us  since  1781 !  It  is  wonderful  that  the  African  Association  of 
London  has  not  yet  availed  itself  of  this  portentous  fact,  vouched  by 
the  Quarterly  Review. 


HOSTILITIES    OF    THE 

PART  I.       "  Every  free  woman  is  a  voter  in  America."* 
^-*~v-^^      "  The  judges  are  not  independent;  but  are  subservient  ti« 
the  government,  and  creatures  of  ihe  President  and  Senate." 

a  No  such  character  as  a  respectable  country  gentleman  b 
known  in  America.":): 

"  For  the  practitioners  of  law,  physic,  and  surgery,  no 
preparatory  course  of  study,  no  testimonial  of  competency,  no 
kind  of  examination,  no  particular  qualifications,  no  diploma, 
no  license  are  required. "§ 

"  Franklin  in  grinding  his  electrical  machine  and  flying 
his  kite,  did  certainly  elicit  some  useful  discoveries  in  a 
branch  of  science  that  had  not  much  engaged  the  attention  of 
the  philosophers  of  Europe.  But  the  foundation  of  Franklin's 
knowledge  was  laid,  not  in  America,  but  in  London.  Be 
sides,  half  of  what  he  wrote  was  stolen  from  others,  and  thj 
greater  part  of  the  other  not  worth  preserving.  It  would  be 
rating  his  moral  writings  very  high  to  estimate  them  at  th? 
same  value  to  the  community  as  his  eleemosynary  legacy. || 

"  The  supreme  felicity  of  a  (rue  born  American  is  inaction 
of  body  and  inanity  of  mind. "IT 

"  Strange  as  it  may  appear,  the  south  western  part  of  the 
New  World  has  already  begun  to  consider  the  north  eastern 
as  having  passed  the  meridian  of  /i/e,  and  accordingly  given  it 
the  name  of  old  America."** 

"  The  founders  of  American  society  brought  to  the  compo 
sition  of  their  nation  no  rudiments  of  liberal  science." 

"  America  is  all  a  parody — a  mimicry  of  her  parents;  it  is, 
however,  the  mimicry  of  a  child,  tetchy  and  wayward  in 
its  infancy,  abandoned  to  bad  nurses,  and  educated  in  low 
habits." 

In  the  4th  number  we  were  told — "  there  has  been  little 
mixture  of  nations  in  America,  not  more  than  in  England;" 
but  in  the  90th  number,  we  find  the  reviewer  talking  of 
America  as  "  a  nation  derived  from  so  many  fathers,"  and 
explaining  "  why  the  thoughtless,  dissolute,  and  turbulent 
of  all  nations  should  in  commingling,  so  neutralize  one  an 
other  in  America,  that  the  result  is  a  people  without  wit  .or 
fancy." 

At  times,  this  journal  has  gone  into  a  train  of  elaborate 
reasoning  to  prove  the  opposition  of  interests  between  "  Old 
worn  owf,"  and  "  New  America,"  and  the  certitude  of  their 
speedy  severance.  From  the  same  motive — political  jea- 

*No.  20.  tlbid.  II  Ibid.  **  Ibid, 

j  Ibid.  §  Ibid.  U  No.  38. 


BRITISH    REVIEWS. 


253 


lousy  and  alarm — which  it  has  never  been  able  to  conceal,  it  SEC.vm. 
has  dealt  in  menacing  cautions,  of  which  the  following  will  <^^~^-' 
serve   as   an  amusing  specimen,  and  disclose  the  kind  of 
comfort   which  is  sought  among  the  ministerial  literati  of 
London,  for  ihe  increase  of  our  power. 

"  It  is  not  in  Europe  only  that  the  prosperity  of  Russia  is 
likely  to  be  advantageous  to  the  British  monarchy.     There 
is  a  nation  without  the  limits  of  Europe,  to  whom,  for  the 
sake  of  our  kindred  race  and  common  language,  we  would 
gladly  wish  prosperity,  but  whose  hope  of  elevation  is  built 
on  our  expected  fall;  and  who,  even  now,  do  not  affect  to 
conceal  the  bitterness  of  their  hatred  towards  the  land  of  their 
progenitors.     Already  we  hear  the  Americans  boasting  that 
the  whole  continent  must  be  their  own;  that  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  are,  alike  to  wash  their  empire,  and  that  it  depends 
on  their  charity  what  share  in  either  ocean  they  may  allow  to 
our  vessels.     They  unroll   their  map  and  point  out  the  dis 
tance — between  Niagara  and  the  Columbia.     Let  them  look 
to  this  last  point  well.     They  will  find  in  that  neighbour 
hood  a  different  race  from  the  unfortunate  Indians  whom  it  is 
the  system  of  their  government  to  treat  with  uniformharsJiness!! 
They  will  find  certain  bearded  men  with  green  jackets  and 
bayonets,  whose  flag  is  already  triumphant  over  the  coast  from 
California  to  the  straits   of  Anian,    who  have  the  faculty 
wherever  they  advance,  of  conciliating  and  even  civilizing 
the  native  tribes  to  a  degree  which  no  other  nation  has  at 
tempted,  and  whose  frontier  is  more  likely  to  meet  theirs  in 
Louisiana,  than  theirs  is  to  extend  to  the  Pacific.     These  are 
not  very  distant  expectations,  and  they  are  not  unfavourable  to 
England."  (April,  1818). 

2.  Our  backwardness  in  the  production  of  good  books,  has 
not  been  quite  so  favourite  and  frequent  a  topic  with  the 
Quarterly  Review,  as  the  other  assailable  points  more  in  the 
line  of  the  political  object.  In  the  midst  of  the  first  general 
denunciation  of  this  country,*  we  find  it  admitted,  we  may- 
presume  inadvertently,  that  "  it  is  no  great  reproach  to  the 
Americans  if  they  have  not  yet  done  more  in  literature;  and 
that  more  ought  not  to  be  expected  from  their  circumstances 
and  population."  Nevertheless,  the  same  writers  have  not 
failed  to  ring  all  the  changes  upon  the  works  of  Dwight,  Bar 
low,  and  "  Mr.  Chief  Justice  Marshall.1"  The  course  pur 
sued  with  three  of  the  American  publications, — Inchiquins's 

*  Review  of  Holme's  Annals, — No.  4. 


254  HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 

PART  I.  View  of  the  United  States,  the  Travels  of  Lewis  and  Clarke, 
'^r^^s  and  Colden's  Life  of  Fulton — to  which  they  afterwards  ex 
tended  their  notice,  is   marked  by  traits  as  discreditable  ar  d 
disgusting  as  individuate  any  case  in  the  annals  of  British  cri 
ticism. 

The  "  View  of  the  United  States"  was  a  mere  vindication 
of  the  native  country  of  the  author  from  the  aspersions  cast 
upon  it  abroad;  it  simply  represented  the  main  features  jf 
our  character  and  condition;  pourtrayed  with  an  impartial 
hand  some  of  our  most  conspicuous  statesmen;  and  asserted 
the  merits  of  two  of  the  American  works,  which  had  be<  n 
traduced  in  England.  It  attempted  no  reprisals  upon  the 
English  aggressors;  used  no  harsh  language;  decried  no  Eu 
ropean  nation.  It  did  not  even  run  into  an  indiscriminate 
panegyric  of  the  United  States,  though  it  professed  to  be  a 
"favourable  view  of  them,"  which  might  be  considered  as  it 
least  pardonable,  after  so  much  had  been  written  in  Europe 
on  the  opposite  side.  Its  general  complexion  argued  libenl 
studies,  and  it  was  recommended  by  a  diction,  liable  indeed 
to  some  exceptions,  but,  on  the  whole,  classical,  elegant,  and 
vigorous.  In  short,  there  was  enough  about  it  to  soften  the 
national  prejudices,  and  even  to  win  the  praise,  of  a  European 
critic  of  ordinary  liberality.  The  Quarterly  Review,  how 
ever,  assailed  this,  in  itself  inoffensive  and  commendable 
performance,  with  the  utmost  asperity;  it  reviled  the  author 
personally;  misrepresented  his  opinions  and  misquoted  his 
language;  and  took  occasion  to  rake  in  all  the  lampoons  and 
gazettes  already  noticed,  for  materials,  out  of  which  it  framed 
what  it  called  "  a  correct  portrait  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States,"  but  what  no  perspicacious  and  generous  mind  can 
see  in  any  other  light  than  as  a  malignant  libel,  and  hideous 
caricature. 

The  u  History  of  Lewis  and  Clarke's  Expedition"  had  not 
merely  nothing  in  it,  to  give  umbrage,  or  to  rouse  national 
antipathies,  but  seemed  to  prefer  irresistible  claims  upon  the 
favour  of  all  the  friends  of  knowledge,  and  to  leave  scope 
only  for  the  most  generous  sympathies.  The  book  is  a  sim 
ple,  clear  narrative,  without  reference  to  any  invidious  topics; 
and  the  expedition  itself  was  alike  unexceptionable  in  the 
design,  conduct,  and  results,  all  of  which,  indeed,  bear  a 
salient  character  of  excellence  and  dignity.  It  stifled  the 
petulance,  and  extorted  the  admiration,  of  the  Scottish  critics, 
who  set  the  proper  example  to  their  brethren  of  London,  by 
pronouncing  upon  it  the  following  eulogy. 

"We  must  remark,  that  this  expedition  does  great  credit 


BRITISH   REVIEWS. 


255 


both  to  the  government  by  which  it  was  planned,  and  to  the  SEC.  vill. 
persons  by  whom  it  was  executed.  The  good  sense,  activity  ^^^^^ 
and  perseverance  of  the  commanders  cannot  be  too  much 
commended;  their  treatment  of  the  natives  was  humane  and 
kind;  and  though  their  mission  was  in  its  intention  concilia 
tory,  yet  this  purpose  could  not  have  been  carried  into  effect 
but  by  men  of  much  good  temper  and  sound  understanding, 
considering  how  long  they  were  exposed  to  the  vexations  aris 
ing  from  the  suspicion,  caprice,  and  levity  of  savages.  The 
great  harmony  that  seems  to  have  prevailed,  the  spirit,  steadi 
ness,  and  exertion  in  the  midst  of  so  much  hardship  and  dan 
ger,  are  highly  meritorious;  and  exhibit  a  band  of  active  and 
intrepid  men,  which  no  country  in  the  world  would  not  be 
proud  to  acknowledge." 

This  was  a  strain  worthy  of  the  theory  of  the  critical  in 
stitute,  but  the  spirit  of  the  Quarterly  Review  could  not  be 
exorcised  as  completely.  It  relented  so  far  as  to  admit  that 
Lewis  and  Clarke  "  travelled  near  9000  miles — the  longest 
river  voyage  undertaken  since  that  of  Orellana;"  and  that 
"  they  performed  with  equal  ability,  perseverance,  and  suc 
cess,  one  of  the  most  arduous  journies  that  ever  was  accom 
plished."  Acknowledged  merits  of  such  magnitude  called 
for  tenderness  to  the  reputation  of  the  individuals  in  all  points; 
for  the  kindest  interpretation  of  appearances  in  the  least  doubt 
ful;  yet  the  English  Reviewer  did  not  hesitate  scornfully  to 
intimate,  that  they  took  pleasure  in  the  obscenities  of  the  In 
dians  of  the  Missouri;*  and  this  affront  is  given  upon  no 
other  foundation  than  that  those  obscenities  are  related.  The 
relation,  too,  is  in  Latin,  uncouth  Latin  indeed;  but  such  as 
it  is,  it  evinces,  in  the  use  of  this  veil,  a  refinement  of  feeling, 
the  opposite  of  the  imputed  grossness.  Let  the  voyages  of 
Captain  Cook,  Captain  Wilson,  and  other  English  navigators; 
or  the  narratives  of  any  of  the  English  travellers  among 
savage  nations,  be  consulted,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  they  are 
much  less  studious  of  decorum;  and  that  a  charge  of  the  kind 
might  be  made  against  them  with  more  plausibility,  if  we 
admit  there  could  be  any  colour  of  reason  for  making  it  on 

*  "The  women  of  the  Aricara  Indians  prostitute  themselves  publicly, 
in  the  intervals  of  dancing.  The  writer  cannot  be  charged  with  offend 
ing  decewcy  in  describing  this  abomination, — he  has  related  another  not 
less  abominable,  in  Latin,  from  respect  to  decorum^  but  in  both  instances  it 
is  evident  that  he  and  his  companion  were  not  men  -who  felt  any  pain  at 
beholding'  tlie  degradation  of  human  nature"  The  very  reverse  is  evident 
to  all  who  are  not  of  the  class  of  moralists  and  philanthropists  "  wil- 
rin£r  to  love  all  mankind,  except  an  American" 


256  HOSTILITIES    OF   THE 

PART  i.  such  a  foundation.     The  personal  acquaintance  of  the  two 
/"V-A-^N  gallant  leaders  of  the  American  expedition,  requires  no  argu 
ment  to  be  convinced  of  their  uniform  elevation  of  sentimeat 
and  deportment. 

They  were,  certainly,  unfortunate  in  the  choice  of  names 
for  the  natural  objects  which  they  were  the  first  to  bring  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  civilized  world.  But  this  merit  of  dis 
cover),  and  the  sagacity,  fortitude,  perseverance,  exemplary 
temper  displayed  throughout  the  expedition,  rendered  doubly 
vpnial  so  inconsiderable  a  fault.  A  refined  classical  taste  has 
belonged  to  very  few  of  the  illustrious  men  to  whom  we  are 
indebted  for  the  enlargement  of  geographical  science;  and  tie 
exploration  of  the  wild  creation  through  which  Lewis  and 
Clarke  penetrated,  presented  the  case,  if  ever  there  was  ore, 
in  which  the  absence  of  that  accomplishment  could  be  consi 
dered  as  excusable  in  itself,  or  its  effects — nay  even  advai- 
tageous  on  the  whole,  and  immediately  conducive  to  the  more 
perfect  achievement  of  the  gigantic  enterprise.  Instead  of 
the  gentle  and  courteous  reproof  which  became  the  occasion, 
the  Quarterly  Review  made  their  homely  nomenclature  the 
subject  of  unsparing  satire,  and  turned  it  into  doggerel  levelled 
not  only  against  the  heroic  adventurers,  but  their  country,  and 
particularly  against  the  high  officers  of  state  with  whom  the 
expedition  originated.  If  the  wretched  diatribe  to  which 
I  refer,  coarser  by  far  in  its  texture  than  the  occasion  of  it; 
too  low  even  for  a  place  in  "Coleman's  Broad  Grins,"  be 
longs  to  the  pen  of  the  Author  of  the  Baviad  and  Mreviadj 
and  the  Translator  of  Juvenal;  of  the  scourge  of  poetasters, 
and  the  assayer  of  English  verse,  it  furnishes  a  striking  ex 
ample  of  the  power  of  national  prejudice  and  party-devotion, 
to  work  the  most  violent  and  pitiable  transformations.  How 
capital  this  stroke  at  the  Americans,  on  the  occasion  of  their 
disclosing  a  new  world  to  the  gaze  of  philosophy  and  the 
march  of  civilization  ! 

"Flow,  Little  Shallow,  flow,  and  be  thy  stream 
Their  great  example,  as  it  will  their  theme  !" 

And  how  natural  and  happy  the  transition  from  such  wit  in 
numbers,  to  such  wit  in  prose,  as  the  following! — uFrom 
Big  Muddy,  they,  the  explorers — to  borrow  a  title  of  Ameri 
can  extraction — proceeded  to  Jefferson,  and  with  not  less  feli 
city  to  Madison  from  Little  Shallow,"  &c. 

Before  I  have  done  with  the  article  in  question,  I  would  . 
call  attention  to  two  more  passages  as  illustrative  of  the  spirit 
presiding  over  the  American  department  of  the  Journal. 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 


257 


"It  was  not  long  before  they  (Lewis  and  Clark)  reached  SEC  vm. 
the  remotest  source  of  the  Missouri,  and  drank  of  the  fountain  v^v^/ 
— a  situation  not  altogether  unworthy  of  being  compared  with 
that  of  Bruce  at  the  fountain  of -the  Abyssinian  Nile." 

"  Langsdorff  notices  a  curious  trade  which  the  Americans 
carry  on  in  this  article  of  fire  arms  on  the  North  West  Coast. 
He  says  they  send  out  a  gunsmith  in  every  ship,  to  buy  up  at 
one  place  all  the  guns  which  want  repairing,  and  sell  them  as 
new  pieces  at  another  !" 

I  aver,  upon  the  authority  of  some  of  the  distinguished  Ame 
rican  merchants  who  trade  with  the  North  West  Coast,  that 
this  statement,  so  kindly  copied  from  Langsdorff,  is  utterly 
false.  Were  it  true,  it  would  not  enable  us  as  yet,  to  dispute 
the  palm  of  fraudulent  ingenuity,  with  our  English  kinsmen. 
It  falls  short  of  such  a  practice  as  the  following  related  by 
Mr.  Southey  in  "Espriella's  Letters;"  a  better  authority  than 
Langsdorff.  "  A  regular  branch  of  trade  here,  at  Birming 
ham,  is  the  manufacture  -of  guns  for  the  African  market. 
They  are  made  for  about  a  dollar  and  a  half:  the  barrel  is 
filled  with  water;  and,  if  the  water  does  not  come  through,  it 
is  thought  proof  sufficient:  of  course  they  burst  ichen  fired,  and 
mangle  the  wretched  negro,  icho  has  purchased  them  upon  the 
credit  of  English  faith,  and  received  them,  most  probably,  as 
the  price  of  human  flesh!  No  secret  is  made  of  this  abominable 
trade;  yet  the  government  never  interferes;  and  the  persons  con 
cerned  in  it  are  not  marked,  and  shunned  as  infamous. r'^ 

The  story  from  Langsdorff  is  entitled  to  about  the  same 
credit  as  the  assertion  made  in  the  26ih  No.  of  the  Quarterly 
Review,  that  Captain  Porter  of  the  American  frigate  Essex, 
after  losing  half  his  crew,  was  taken  by  a  ship  of  inferior  force. 
The  hardihood  of  the  Reviewer  may  almost  confound  those 
who  read  the  following  extract,  from  the  official  letter,  dated 
30th  March,  1814,  of  Captain  Hillyar  of  his  Majesty's  ship 
Phoebe  (the  antagonist  of  Porter)  to  Commodore  Brown,  sta 
tioned  at  Jamaica.  u  The  defence  of  the  Essex,  taking  into  con 
sideration  our  great  superiority  of  force,  the  very  discouraging 
circumstances  of  having  lost  her  main  top-mast,  and  being 
twice  on  fire,  did  honour  to  her  defender,  and  must  fully  prove 
the  courage  of  Captain  Porter." 

The  c  Life  of  Robert  Fulton,  by,  Cadwallader  D.  Colden 
of  New  York,'  has  experienced  a  treatment  from  these  up 
right  critics,  more  remarkable  still,  and,  if  possible,  more 

*  See  also,  on  this  head,  Clarkson's  History  of  the  Abolition  of  the 
Slave  Trade,  Vol.  II.  c.  iii, 

VOL.  I.— K  k 


HOSTILITIES  UP  THE 

PART  I.  shameless.  The  work  of  Mr.  Golden  appears  as  a  mere 
v^v^w/  Biographical  Memoir,  read  before  the  Literary  and  Philoso 
phical  Society  of  New  York,  conformably  to  one  of  the  prin 
cipal  ends  of  that  respectable  institution.  It  obtained  the  shape 
of  a  book  at  the  request  of  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed; 
and  the  proceeds  of  its'publication,  whatever  they  might  be. 
were  assigned  to  the  erection  of  a. monument  to  the  memory  of 
the  illustrious  engineer.  The  author  announced  himself,  eveia 
in  the  title-page,  emphatically  as  his  friend,  and  took  charge, 
avowedly,  of  his  panegyric.  This, — for  one  who  had  known 
him  in  relations  of  the  closest  intimacy,  and  when  the  deceased 
had  left  so  many  titles  to  the  most  solemn  commemoration- 
was  unexceptionable  in  itself,  and  sanctioned,  moreover,  by 
abundant  precedents  in  the  practice  of  the  European  nations. 
Mr.  Golden  was  not  a  writer  by  profession  or  habit;  he  be 
longed  to  the  bar,  at  which  he  had  established  the  highest  re 
putation,  and  filled  the  highest  office.  He  is  now  mayor  oi 
the  city  of  New  York;  a  station  .of  great  consequence  and 
dignity.  He  is  the  grandson  of  the  Lieutenant  Governor  Col- 
den  who  wrote  the  celebrated  History  of  the  rive  Indian  Na 
tions,  arid  whose  merits  and  honours  in  the  world  of  science, 
are  second  only  to  those'  of  Franklin,  among  the  men  that 
have  flourished  on  the  American  continent  as  politicians  and 
philosophers.*  The  biographer  of  Fulton  has  shown  himself 
worthy  of  this  descent,  by  an  acknowledged,  invariable  pro 
bity;  a  versatile  genius;  and  the  assiduous  cultivation  of  the 
sciences  and  liberal  arts  in  the  midst  of  extensive  professional 
engagements,  and  of  arduous  municipal  duties.  It  was  in  mo 
ments  snatched  from  these,  that,  to  gratify  his  feelings  and  the 
wishes  of  the  learned  society  which  ranks  him  as  one  of  its  most 
useful  and  erudite  members,  he  framed  the  Memoir  in  ques 
tion,  with  a  full  conviction,  derived  from  the  nearest  observa 
tion,  of  the  reality  of  the  services  and  qualities  which  he  cele 
brated:  and,  whatever  he  may  have  claimed  of  excellence  for 
the  labours  of  Fulton,  it  is  impossible  he  could  have  been 
more  unassuming,  or  unpretending,  as  respects  his  own  pro 
duction.  If  he  has  asserted  extravagant  titles  for  his  subject,  it 
is  manifestly  without  any  designs, — from  no  impulses — which 
can  lay  him  open  to  personal  reproach  or  incivility.  The 
tenor  of  his  book  proves  his  competency  to  his  task;  in 
point  of  style,  arrangement,  and  general  instmctiveness,  it  is 
all  that  could  be  expected  or  desired  for  the  occasion. 

He  was  led  by  the  nature  of  his  theme,  and  the  wonders 
of  steam-navigation  which  he  witnessed  about  him,  to  medi- 

*  See  note  Si 


BRITISH  REVIEWS.  259 

late  much,  and  lay  the  utmost  stress,  upon  the  magnitude  of  SEC.  vm. 
its  benefits  to  the  human  race.  It  is  not  surprising  <hat  these  v-^^~^-> 
should  appear  of  less  consequence  and  sublimity,  to  an  ob 
server  in  England,  where,  from  the  shortness  of  the  distances 
and  the  facilities  of  canal  navigation,  so  little,  comparatively, 
remained  to  be  done  for  internal  communication;  where  the 
small  steam-boats,  plying  on  the  diminutive  streams,  and 
serving  only  the  purpose*of  conveying  passengers  a  few  miles 
with  greater  convenience,  are  so  little  imposing  either  to  ihe 
eye  or  to  the  imagination.  But  in  America,  the  actual  and 
future  scene,  in  this  respect,  has  an  engrossing  and  transport 
ing  influence,  and  is  of  a  real  importance  and  magnificence, 
which  scarcely  leave  scope  for  exaggeration  in  feeling  or  repre 
sentation. 

Mr.  Golden  saw  steam-vessels  of  four  and  five  hundred  tons, 
constructed  as  commodiously,  arid  furnishing  as  perfect  secu 
rity  for  merchandise  or  passengers,  as  the  ware  or  the  dwel 
ling-house;  overcoming  with  unexampled  velocity  the  power 
ful  currents  of  our  mighty  rivers;  multiplying  indefinitely  on 
the  innumerable  waters  of  this  vast  country,  and  almost  ac 
complishing  the  wish  of  the  lover — the  annihilation  of  time 
and  space — in  the  domestic  intercourse  of  North  America. 
He  could  at  once  extend  his  view  to  the  southern  regions  of 
this  hemisphere;  to  the  continents  of  Europe,  Africa,  and 
Asia,  and  see  in  prospect  the  same  prodigies  wrought  there, 
and  the  same  train  of  moral  and  physical  advantages  ulti 
mately  jealized.  He  had  seen  a  steam-frigate  of  gigantic  size, 
moving  on  the  Hudson  with  the  facility  and  force  of  motion, 
and  the  military  faculties,  which  would  assure  invulnerability 
to  the  seaports  of  his  country,  and  might  give  a  new  and  de 
sirable  character  to  maritime  warfare.*  He  had  seen,  to  use 
his  own  words,  "the  Paragon,  of  three  hundred  and  thirty- 
one  tons  burthen,  tow  the  steam  frigate  Fulton,  which  is  of  - 
the  burthen  of  two  thousand  four  hundred  and  seventy-five 
tons,  from  the  ship  yards  in  the  Sound,  where  she  was  launch 
ed,  to  the  clock  or  the  city  of  Jersey,  on  the  Hudson,  where 
she  was  to  receive  her  machinery,  at  the  rate  of  four  miles 

*  "  Every  one,"  says  Cuvier,  in  his  brilliant  Discourse  of  24th  April, 
1816,  on  the  Progress  of  the  Sciences,  before  the  French  Institute — 
"every  one  may  see  how  much  this  invention  of  Steam -Boats  will  sim 
plify  the  navigation  of  our  rivers,  and  how  much  agriculture  will  gain 
in  men  and  horses,  that  may  now  return  to  the  fields ;  but  what  we  may 
be  also  permitted  to  descry,  and  what  will,  perhaps,  be  more  impor 
tant,  is  the  revolution  to  which  it  will  lead  in  maritime  warfare  and  in 
the  power  of  nations.  It  is  extremely  probable  that  we  shall  have  to 
reckon  this  among  the  experiments,  that  can  be  said  to  have  changed 
the  face  of  the  world." 


^UU  HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 

PART  I.  and  an  half  an  hour;  the  same  frigate,  propelled  by  that  ma- 
v"^^v">^  chinery  alone,  make  a  passage  to  the  ocean  and  back,  a  dis 
tance  of  53  miles,  in  eight  hours  and  twenty  minutes — th ; 
Fulton  steam  boat,  which  navigates  the  East  river,  passing 
daily  through  Hell-gate  against  a  rapid  frequently  running  &t 
the  rate  of  six  miles  an  hour." 

The  crossing  of  the  broadest  and  most  rapid  rivers,  before 
alike  dangerous,  difficult,  and  tedious.,  had  been  rendered  salt , 
easy,  and  expeditious,  by  the  use  of  steam  ferry-boats,  capa 
ble  of  carrying  hundreds  of  passengers  and  vehicles  at  a 
time,  and  almost  any  mere  burden. 

From  these  performances,  prospects  and  hopes  naturally 
opened  upon  the  mind  of  our  author,  which  would  have 
warmed  any  fancy;  and  sentiments  of  admiration  and  grati 
tude  towards  Fulton  were  excited,  which  cannot  appear  h}  - 
perbolical  to  an  American,  especially  at  this  time,  when  we 
know  that  a  steam-ship  is  on  her  passage  across  the  Atlantic; 
and  that  a  fleet  of  steam-vessels  are  making  their  way,  with  a 
detachment  of  (he  army  of  the  Uniied  States,  to  establish  a 
post  at  the  Yellow  Stone,  on  the  Missouri,  in  the  interior  of 
our  continent,  two  thousand  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi.  These  two  facts  render  it  not  improbable  that, 
by  the  same  means,  the  passage  between  Europe  and  America 
will  be  made  in  less  time,  and  with  less  inconvenience,  than 
a  journey  between  Edinburgh  and  London  was  accomplished 
half  a  century  ago;  and  that  a  commerce  between  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  Oceans  may  be  maintained,  through  the  Columbia 
and  Missouri,  with  as  much  certainty  and  facility,  as  it  is 
between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Mediterranean. 

With  such  ulterior  results  as  likely,  and  with  the  incalculable, 
realized  good,  before  him,  Mr.  Colden  ventured  to  say  of  the  man 
whom  he  considered  as  its  immediate,  intelligent  author,  that 
"there  could  not  be  found  in  the  records  of  departed  worth, 
the  name  of  a  person  to  whose  individual  exertions  mankind 
are  more  indebted,  nor  one  which  would  live  farther  into 
time,  if  not  robbed  of  the  fame  due  to  superior  genius,  exerted 
with  wonderful  courage,  industry,  perseverance,  and  success." 
No  impartial  and  reflecting  reader  could  view  this  declaration 
as  extravagant,  or  fail  to  approve  both  of  the  tone  and  pur 
port  of  the  passage  which  immediately  follows  in  the  biogra 
phy.  "  If  the  construction  of  a  bridge,  or  the  formation  of  a 
canal,  has  often  given  a  celebrity  which  has  been  transmitted 
through  many  ages,  what  fame  and  what  gratitude  does  not  he 
deserve,  who  has  furnished  a  means  of  transportation  which 
may  bring  the  inhabitants  of  the  different  quarters  of  the 
world  nearer  to  each  other  than,  previously,  those  of  the  same 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 


261 


territory  considered  themselves;  which  will  spread  with  a  fa-  SEC.  VIII. 
eility  before  unknown,  the  influence  of  religion,  civilization,  s^^v-^^ 
and  the  arts;  which  will  bring  the  whole  human  species  to 
an  intimate  acquaintance  with  each  other;  and  will  unite 
mankind  by  the  bonds  of  mutual  intercourse." 

Fulton  himself  had  never  pretended  that  he  was  the  first 
projector  or  inventor  of  steam-boat  navigation;  and  his  bio 
grapher  is  far  from  having  ascribed  to  him  this  merit.     Mr. 
Golden  admitted  that   "  some  ingenious  attempts  to  propel 
boats  by  steam  had  been  made  long  before  the  time  Mr.  Ful 
ton  was  known  to  have  thought  of  it;"  and  that  the  idea  ori 
ginated  with  an  Englishman,  Mr.  Jonathan  Hulls,  who  pub 
lished  his  scheme  in  1737,  at  London.     Our  author  received 
implicitly  the  statement  respeeiing  Hull's  suggestions,  which 
he  read  in  Buchanan's  "  Treatise  on  Propelling  Vessels  by 
Steam,"  a  work  that  appeared  in  Scotland  in  1817.     What 
he  claimed  for  Fulton,  and  what  alone  Fulton  claimed  for 
himself,  was,  his  being  the  first,  who,  by  improvements  on 
the  mere  conceptions  or  vain   attempts,  of  others,  established 
steam-navigation  so  as  to  render  it  perpetually  practicable 
and   unboundedly   useful — improvements  effected  not    by   a 
lucky  chance  or  cunning  plagiary,  but  by  a  rare  combina 
tion  of  inventive  powers,  of  mathematical  and  philosophical 
science,  of  mechanical   knowledge  and  experience,   and  of 
intrepidity  and  perseverance.     Buchanan,  the  Scottish  writer 
whom   1  have  just  mentioned,  had  owned  in  his  treatise, 
while  vindicating  the  credit  of  origination   for  Hulls,  that 
uthe  steam-boats  of  Fulton  were  the  first  that  succeeded  in  a 
profitable  way."     A  more  absolute  admission,  ratifying  fully 
the  doctrine  of  Mr.  Golden,  has  been  made  in  the  April  num 
ber  of  Dr.  Thompson's  Annals  of  Philosophy,  in  an  able 
paper  on   the  origin  of  steam-boats.     The  writer  holds  the 
following  language.    "  Jt  is  not  a  little  remarkable  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  arts,  and  forms  a  striking  instance  of  the  slow  and 
progressive  steps  by  which  they  advance,  that  that  most  ele 
gant  and  useful  discovery,  the  steam-boat,  first  brought  forward 
in  1736,  by  Jonathan  Hulls  of  London,  and  afterwards  pub 
licly  investigated  and  tried  by  Lord  Stanhope  and  Mr.  Miller 
of  Dalswinton,  should   have  been  carried  to  America,  and 
there  first  have  changed  its  character  from  mere  experiment 
to  extensive  practice  and  utility,  and  that  it  should  again  have 
been  introduced  into  Britain  upon  the  experience  of  Americans, 
only  so  lately  as  the  year  1813,  when  it  was  first  employed 
upon  the  river  Clyde."     Even  the  Quarterly  Review,  in  the 
article  upon  which  I  am  about  to  animadvert,  avows  it  to  be 


262  HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 

PART  r.  "  beyond  all  question  that  Mr.  Fulton  made  considerable  im- 
^-^-v-^'  provements  in  the  application  of  the  steam-engine  to  the  navi 
gation  of  boats;"  and  adds — u  It  is  quite  natural  that  the 
Americans  should  uphold  the  reputation  of  their  own  country 
men.  We  cannot  blame  them  for  it,  and  some  allowance 
may  reasonably  be  made  for  excess  of  panegyric,  in  speaking 
of  artists  of  native  growth." 

I  have  premised  all  these  details,  in  order  to  the  better  un 
derstanding  of  the  article  in  question,  which  I  will  now  cu> 
sorily  examine.  It  begins  thus: 

"  Although  our  readers  may  be  inclined  to  give  us  credit 
for  some  knowledge  of  our  transatlantic  brethren,  yet  we  CBD 
honestly  assure  them  that  we  were  not  quite  prepared  for  such 
a  sally  as  this  of  Cadwallader  Golden,  Esq."  &c.  alluding  o 
his  declaration  noticed  above  of  the  obligations  of  mankind  to 
Fulton.  We  have  then  a  series  of  sneers  at  the  panegyrics 
pronounced  upon  the  engineer  by  others  of  his  countrymen, 
and  at  the  New  York  Historical  Society.  The  Reviewers 
themselves  sit  in  judgment  upon  Fulton,  and  describe  him  rs 
a  a  man  who  possessed  just  talent  enough  to  apply  the  inven 
tions  of  others  to  his  own  purposes."  Mr.  Golden  is  taxed  with 
disingenuity  and  misrepresentation,  and  ever  and  anon,  with 
as  much  urbanity  as  wit,  styled  "  Mr.  Cadwallader  Golden," 
"  friend  Cadwallader,"  "  the  conscientious  and  consistent 
friend,"  &c.  The  critics,  by  way.  we  must  suppose,  of  teach 
ing  him  a  lesson  of  ingenuousness  and  truth,  assume,  that  he 
had  arrogated  for  Fulton  the  merit  of  discovery,  in  the  case  of 
the  steam-boat,  and  proceed  laboriously  to  refute  the  pretended 
doctrine. 

It  is  unlucky,  that  in  setting  out,  they  could  find  no  stronger 
language  in  the  work  of  Mr.  Golden,  than  the  phrase — "  We 
and  all  the  world  are  indebted  to  Fulton  for  the  establishment 
of  navigation  by  steam."  With  the  biography  in  their  hands., 
and  acquainted,  no  doubt,  with  what  Buchanan  had  written, 
they  do  not  scruple  to  introduce  and  parade  the  theory  of 
Hulls,  in  such  a  way  precisely,  as  if  they  were  the  first  to 
announce  it,  and  Mr.  Golden  and  America  to  be  confounded 
with  the  disclosure.  They  give  an  account  of  Mr.  Miller's 
experiments,  in  the  year  1787,  on  the  Forth  and  Clyde 
Canal,  which  they  acknowledge  "  did  not  succeed  to  his 
entire  satisfaction;"  and  they  lay  great  stress  upon  those  of 
one  of  his  assistants,  of  the  name  of  Symington,  who  pursued 
his  ideas,  with  no  better  success  in  the  end.  We  are  told  by 
them,  that  Fulton  paid  a  visit  to  Symington,  and  examined 
his  boat;  and  in  the  same  manner,  it  is  affirmed,  equally  with- 


BRITISH  REVIEWS.  263 

out  the  production  of  any  evidence,  in  the  paper  of  Thomp-  SEC.vm. 
son's  Annals,  to  which  I  have  referred,  that  Fulton  saw  the  ^*~v~^/ 
experiments  of  Miller — a  circumstance  highly  improbable, 
since  Fulton  was  born  only  in  1765,  and  did  not  leave  this, 
his  native  country,  until  after  his  majority. 

The  very  attempts  of  the  Reviewers  to  invalidate  the  claim 
set  up  for  Fulton,  tend  to  show  that  it  is  well  founded.  We 
may  admit,  as  Mr.  Golden  has  done,  that  Jonathan  Hulls  was 
the  first  who  thought  of  using  the  power  of  steam  for  naviga 
tion;*  but  it  is  not  pretended  that  he  ever  proceeded  to  apply 
his  conception,  even  so  far  as  to  make  an  experiment.  It 
cannot  but  be  perceived  by  every  one  conversant  with  what  is 
now  in  practice,  that  Mr.  Hulls'  scheme  would  not  have  been 
effectual  to  drive  the  tow-boat  itself,  much  less  to  drag  "  a 
two-decker."  The  steerage  of  balloons,  and  plans  for  the 
purpose,  have  been  often  suggested;  we  have  seen  repre 
sentations  of  them,  beating  to  windward  under  full  sail. 
Should  the  art  of  governing  them  be  hereafter  discovered  and 
perfected  by  the  same  individual,  it  will  be  quite  as  equita 
ble  to  deny  him  the  merit  of  balloon-navigation,  in  favour  of 
the  first  speculators,  or  of  the  authors  of  the  drawings,  as  it  is 
to  detrude  Fulton  from  his  pedestal,  to  substitute  Jonathan 
Hulls. 

Patrick  Miller  never  attempted  to  apply  the  engine  to  ves 
sels.  The  Reviewers  inform  us  that  in  a  book  which  he  pub 
lished  in  1787,  he  has  said,  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  the 
power  of  the  steam-engine  might  be  employed  to  work  the 
wheels,  so  as  to  give  them  a  quicker  motion,  and  to  increase 
that  of  the  ship.  He  announced,  at  the  same  time,  his  inten 
tion  to  make  the  experiment,  and  to  communicate  the  result, 
if  favourable,  to  the  public.  No  such  communication  is  alleged 
to  have  been  made,  and  the  conclusion  is  inevitable,  that  the 
result  was  not  favourable.  With  respect  to  Symington's  boat, 
the  assertion  that  it  was  seen  by  Fulton  is  wholly  gratuitous; 
there  is  no  trace  of  the  fact  in  the  papers  of  the  latter;  it  is, 
however,  not  impossible,  and  will  be  readily  admitted.  Mr. 
Colden  has  furnished  proof  that  Fulton  communicated  the 
project  of  a  steam-boat  to  Lord  Stanhope,  in  the  year  1793, 
seven  years  previous.  The  experiment  of  Symington  on  the 
Clyde  is  mentioned  in  the  biography  of  Fulton,  and  it  is  not 

*  This  is  not,  however,  precisely  the  case.  Some  of  the  English  wri 
ters  claim  the  merit  for  captain  Savery,  who,  it  is  said,  published  the 
idea  in  1698,  and  even  proposed  wheels  over  the  sides  of  the  boat. 
Hulls  took  out  a  patent  in  1736,  for  "  towing  vessels  into  harbour  by 
means  of  a  boat  with  paddles,  to  be  worked  by  steam." 


264  HOSTILITIES  OP  THE 

PART  I.  denied  in  that  work,  that  the  American  availed  himself  of  the 
\^-v-*^  hints  afforded  by  the  abortive  or  incomplete  experiments  of 
his  precursors.  Their  very  errors  may  have  suggested  to  :iim 
the  means  of  effecting  his  object.  Scarcely  one  of  the  il  us- 
trious  men  who  have  the  credit  of  noble  discoveries,  or  im 
provements,  in  physics  or  in  morals,  but  enjoyed  this  negative 
kind  of  aid,  or  the  positive  advantage  of  seminal  ideas,  and 
partial  schemes.  Sir  Isaac  Newton  was  indebted  to  the  ex 
periments  and  observations  of  Kepler,  and  to  the  discoveries 
of  Grimaldi;  Galileo  had  seen  the  telescope  of  Meiius: 
Watt  profited  of  the  labours  of  Newcomen:  Dr.  Jenner  vvas 
"  not  the  first  who  imagined,  or  suggested,  or  tried,  the  pro 
phylactic  power  of  the  vaccine.  There  is  a  striking  i  na- 
logy,  in  fact,  between  the  cases  of  Jenner  and  Fulton: — the 
glory  of  vaccination  is  not  more  justly  due  to  the  one,  than 
that  of  steam-boat  navigation  to  the  other.  The  question  is 
not  who  first  proposed  to  connect  steam  with  navigation;  but 
who  first  and  completely  succeeded  in  so  doing,  and  enabled 
others  to  succeed.  The  world  will  never  consent  to  exalt  the 
genius  and  merits  of  him  who  merely  throws  out  a  loose 
hint,  or  stops  short  at  a  diagram,  or  finishes  with  an  abortive 
experiment,  over  those  of  the  sanguine  and  accomplished  en 
terpriser,  who  seizes  derelict,  and  vivifies  still-born  ideas;  who, 
uniting  in  himself  the  aptitude  to  invent,  the  sagacity  to  dis 
tinguish,  and  the  skill  to  execute,  puts  the  world  in  las  ing 
possession  of  that,  which  others  had  essayed,  with  such  results 
only  as  tended  to  arrest  the  efforts  of  industry,  and  discredit  the 
powers  of  art. 

When  the  reviewers  were  dragging  forward  Mr.  Syming 
ton  as  the  rival  of  Fulton,  and  alleging  that  his  boat  fully  an 
swered  the  expectations  which  had  been  formed,  it  would 
have  been  well  if  they  had  told  us,  what  those  expectations 
were,  and  how  fulfilled.  For  want  of  this  information  from 
them,  I  am  obliged  to  look  elsewhere  for  it.  I  find  an 
account  of  Mr.  Symington's  experiment,  in  the  Journals 
of  the  Royal  Institution,  for  1802;  a  publication  which  can 
not  be  suspected  of  a  bias  unfavourable  to  Mr.  Symington. 
It  is  there  stated  that  he  ascertained  that  his  boat  would 
travel  at  the  rate  of  two  miles  and  an  half  an  hour;  upon 
the  placid  surface  of  a  canal,  be  it  understood,  where  no  cur 
rent  was  to  be  breasted.  But  I  will  take  the  language  of  the 
Royal  Institution  itself,  that  it  may  be  seen  how  far  those 
who  ranked  among  the  best  judges  in  England  were,  at  that 
date,  from  clear  ideas  of  the  capacities,  or  fixed  hopes  of  the 
permanent  success,  of  steam-navigation. 


BRITISH  REVIEWS, 


265 


u  Several  attempts  have  been  made  to  apply  the  force  of  SEC.VIII. 
str  am  to  the  purpose  of  propelling  boats  in  canals,  and  there 
seems  to  be  no  reason  to  think  the  undertaking  by  any  means 
liable  to  insuperable  difficulties. 

"An  engine  of  ihe  kind  proposed  by  Mr.  Symington,  has 
been  actually  constructed  at  the  expense  of  the  proprietors  of 
the  Forth  and  Clyde  navigation,  and  under  the  patronage  of 
the  governor,  Lord  Dundas;  it  was  tried  in  December  last, 
and  it  drew  three  vessels  from  60  to  70  tons  burden  at  the 
usual  rate  of  two  miles  and  a  half  an  hour.  Mr.  Symington 
is  at  present  employed  in  attempting  still  further  improve 
ments,  and  when  he  has  completed  his  invention,  it  may, 
perhaps,  ultimately  become  productive  of  very  extensive  uti 
lity." 

Mr.  Fulton's  first  boat  went  almost  from  off  the  stocks  at 
New  York,  to  Albany,  a  distance  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
miles,  and  performed  the  voyage  with  and  against  the  cur 
rent  of  the  Hudson,  at  the  rate  of  Jive  miles  an  hour.  When 
her  machinery  was  more  perfectly  adjusted,  she  accomplished 
the  same  passage  at  the  rate  of  eight  miles  an  hour.  The 
vessels  built  on  Mr.  Fulton's  plan,  which  are  now  in  opera 
tion,  average  ten  miles  an  hour.  The  difference  of  speed 
between  Mr.  Symington's  boat  and  Mr.  Fulton's,  alone  ar 
gues  some  material  difference  in  the  machinery.  The  ac 
count  above  mentioned,  contains  a  description  of  Symington's 
boat.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  it  differs  totally 
from  that  of  Mr.  Fulton;  or  to  ask — of  what  use  would  be  Mr. 
Symington's  boat,  with  a  movement  of  two  and  a  half  miles  an 
hour,  in  the  American  rivers  of  the  south  and  west,  which 
are  now  so  successfully  navigated  by  the  boats  of  Fulton, 
against  currents  of  three  and  four  miles  an  hour? 

If  the  experiments  made  in  England  were  so  perfect,  it  is 
incomprehensible  how  it  happened,  that  no  vessels  were  con 
structed,  and  put  in  common  use,  until  about  five  years 
after  Fulton's  boats  were  seen  in  successful  operation  on  the 
Hudson.  Nor  is  it  more  easy  to  conjecture,  why  all  the  Bri 
tish  boats  now  in  use,  are  built  according  to  Mr.  Fulton's 
plan,  and  not  according  to  that  of  Hulls,  or  Miller,  or  Sy 
mington. 

It  is  pleasant  to  compare  the  pretensions  set  up  for  Great 
Britain  by  the  Quarterly  Review,  with  the  confession  of  a 
British  engineer,  Mr.  Dodd,  a  man  of  eminence  in  his  pro 
fession,  and  a  skilful  architect  of  steam-boats, — that  the  first  of 
them  which  succeeded  in  Great  Britain,  was  built  in  1812;  and 
that,  although  the  Americans  had  given  the  fullest  trial  to  the 
VOL.  I.— L  1 


%'6  HOSTILITIES    OP   THL 

PARTI.  British  invention  during  five  years  previous,  it  was  necessary 
^*~v*^s  there  should  be  a  new  one  under  the  eyes  of  the  British  nation, 
to  inspire  confidence,  and  induce  the  building  of  more  boats  .* 
On  the  whole,  no  evidence  is  to  be  found  of  the  practical  uti 
lity  of  the  British  projects;  but  there  exists  the  most  violent 
presumption  to  the  contrary:  and  it  is  impossible,  as  regards 
England,  to  resist  the  force  of  the  interrogation  put  by  Mr. 
Golden — "  If  steam-boats  had  ever  been  constructed  befc  re 
the  experiment  of  Fulton,  so  near  perfection  as  to  show  that 
they  might  be  used  to  their  present  advantage,  can  it  be  t  e- 
lieved  that  they  would  have  been  abandoned?" 

The  unanswerable  address  of  an  American  to  a  Briton, 
on  this  subject,  is — u  You  conceived  the  idea  of  propelling 
boats  by  steam,  as  early  as  1698 — you  afterwards  employed 
yourselves  repeatedly  in  devising  methods  and  making  tri  ils 
to  carry  that  idea  into  effect — you  could  never  succeed  to  your 
'satisfaction,'  that  is,  to  any  advantageous  extent — you  rel  n- 
quished  your  impotent  endeavours — one  of  my  countrymen 
appropriated  your  conception;  new  modelled  your  plans; 
scanned  and  detected  your  mistakes;  and,  as  you  confess, 
changed  in  America  the  character  of  your  invention  from 
mere  experiment  to  extensive  practice  and  utility: — the  steam 
boat  issued  from  his  hands  as  Minerva  did  from  the  head  of 
Jupiter — a  mature  creation;  you  were  content  to  receive  it, 
some  years  afterwards,  '  upon  the  experience  of  the  Ameri 
cans,'  neglecting  entirely  your  own  boasted  constructions  of 
the  same  name,  the  utility  of  which,  if  not  all  sufficient  for 
you,  upon  your  narrow  geographical  scale,  could  be  nothing 
for  the  rest  of  the  world.  Far,  then,  from  holding  so  over 
weening  a  language,  from  taking  all  the  credit,  you  should 
rather  take  some  shame,  to  yourselves,  that  you  were  not  able 
to  improve  your  notions  to  the  point  of  general  utility.  If, 
with  the  advantage  of  discovery,  you  accomplished,  virtually, 
nothing,  in  the  lapse  of  more  than  a  century,  what  must  be 
the  merit  of  the  stranger  who,  in  America,  accomplished 
every  thing  at  the  first  cast?  If  you  did  not  adopt  this  mode 
of  navigation,  until  five  years  after  its  complete  triumph  in 
America,  and  then  received  it  with  hesitation  and  a  sort  of 
incredulity,  when  would  it  have  been  turned  to  any  account 
among  you,  had  he  not  established  it  there?  How  long  might 
not  the  world  have  remained  without  this  master-piece?" 

*  An  Historical  and  Explanatory  Dissertation  on  Steam-Engines  and 
Steam-Packets,  by  George  Dodd,  Civil  Engineer.  London.  1818.  See 
Note  T. 


BRITISH  REVIEWS.  267 

If  the  degree  of  merit  claimed  by  Fulton  could  be  con-  SEC.VIII. 
tested  with  success  any  where,  it  is  in  America,  for  Ameri-  ^^^-^s 
cans,  who  preceded  him  and  the  British  mechanicians,  in  the 
attempt  to  propel  vessels  by  steam.  Miller  made  his  experi 
ments  on  the  Forth  and  Clyde  Canal,  and  published  his  book, 
in  1787;  Symington  put  his  scheme  to  the  test  in  the  same 
canal  in  1801.  If  Miller,  as  it  is  said  in  Thompson's  An 
nals,  communicated  his  plan  to  General  Washington  in  1787, 
an  American  had  previously  imparted  a  more  perfect  one  to 
the  general.  This  person,  James  Rumsey,  of  Virginia,  con 
structed  a  boat  to  be  navigated  by  steam,  in  the  summer  of 
1 785,  after  having  obtained  an  exclusive  right  to  the  use  of 
his  invention  from  two  states;  in  the  following  year  he 
made  an  experiment  with  her  in  the  Potowmac;  and  by 
the  force  of  steam  alone,  propelled  her  against  the  current 
of  that  river  at  the  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour.  In  1787,  he 
published  a  pamphlet  on  the  subject,  which  I  have  now  before 
me,  bearing  this  title — "  A  Short  Treatise  on  the  Application 
of  Steam,  whereby  it  is  clearly  shown,  from  actual  Experi 
ments,  that  Steam  may  be  applied  to  Propel  Boats  or  Vessels 
of  any  burthen  against  Rapid  Currents,  with  Great  Velocity." 
His  main  positions  in  this  pamphlet  are,  to  use  his  own  words, 
u  that  a  boat  might  be  so  constructed,  as  to  be  propelled 
through  the  water,  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour,  by  the 
force  of  steam;  and  that  the  machinery  employed  for  that 
purpose,  might  be  so  simple  and  cheap,  as  to  reduce  the  price 
of  freight  at  least  one  half  in  common  navigation;  likewise 
that  it  might  be  forced,  by  the  same  machinery,  with  consi 
derable  velocity,  against  the  constant  stream  of  long  and  rapid 
rivers."  Another  passage  may  be  quoted,  as  not  less  pointed 
and  remarkable. 

"  In  the  course  of  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1784,  I  made 
such  progress  in  the  improvement  of  some  steam  engines 
which  I  had  long  conceived  would  have  become  of  the  great 
est  consequence  in  navigation,  that  I  flattered  myself  this 
invention,  if  it  answered  my  expectation  (the  truth  whereof 
experiments  have  now  established)  would  render  my  labours 
more  extensively  useful,  by  being  equally  applicable  to  small 
boats,  or  vessels  of  the  largest  size,  to  shallow  and  rapid 
rivers,  or  the  deepest  and  roughest  seas." 

In  his  communication  to  General  Washington,  of  March 
10th,  1785,  he  remarks,  "  I  have  quite  convinced  myself  that 
boats  of  passage  may  be  made  to  go  against  the  current  of 
the  Mississippi  or  Ohio  rivers,  or  in  the  gulf  stream,  from  60 
to  100  miles  per  day." 


268 


HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 


PART  I.  In  Thompson's  Annals  it  is  said  that  Miller  appears  10 
'M^-V^/  have  been  exclusively  the  inventor  of  the  double  boat;  but  the 
first  which  Rumsey  devised  in  1784,  was  of  that  description 

Another  American  of  the  name  of  Fitch  engaged  in  a  coune 
of  experiments  of  the  same  nature  with  those  of  Rumsey, 
about  (he  same  time,  and  a  sharp  controversy  arose  between 
them  with  respect  to  priority.*  What  can  be  put  beyond 
question,  is,  that  Fitch  laid  his  plan  before  Congress  in 
1785;  navigated  the  river  Delaware  up  and  down,  in  tie 
year  1786,  with  a  steam-boat,  which  was  brought,  before 
it  was  abandoned  in  1791,  to  the  celerity  of  eight  miles 
an  hour;  and  that  he  obtained  from  the  legislatures  of  New 
Jersey,  Delaware,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania,  an  exclusive- 
privilege  for  those  states,  in  the  years  1786,  7.  There  is 
not  the  least  probability  that  either  of  these  highly  ingenious 
men  had  even  heard  of  the  suggestions  of  Savery  and  Hulls; 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  indeed,  of  their  total  ignorance  of 
whatever  had  been  proposed  or  attempted  in  Europe.  Their 
plans  and  experiments,  besides  possessing  the  merit  of  origi 
nality,  have  the  advantage  over  those  of  Miller  and  Syming 
ton  in  all  other  respects.  A  scientific  comparison  does  rot 
lie  within  my  province;  but  I  feel  myself  authorized  to  assert, 
that  the  result  would  be  in  favour  of  the  Americans.  Their 
views  were  more  extensive;  their  experiments  bolder;  and 
they  accomplished  much  more,  with  machinery  of  such  work 
manship  as  could  be  procured  in  this  country,  at  a  time  when 
it  lagged  far  behind  Great  Britain  in  the  mechanical  arts. 

With  respect,  then,  to  the  point  of  intention,* exclusive  of 
that  of  establishment  which  is  conceded  to  her,  America  would 
seem  to  have  stronger  claims,  in  the  matter  of  steam-naviga 
tion,  than  Great  Britain.  The  mere  priority  of  time  in  the 
conception,  where  no  communication  can  be  presumed,  will 
be  viewed  by  none  as  the  main  consideration  or  determi 
nate  title.  Mr.  Golden  has  mentioned  in  some  detail,  in  the 
Life  of  Fulton,  the  attempts  of  Fitch  and  Rumsey,  on  our 
rivers,  and  also  the  subsequent  one  of  Rumsey  on  the  Thamt  s, 
in  England,  whither  he  repaired,  in  the  expectation  of  find 
ing' greater  facilities,  and  more  opulent  patronage,  for  his 
plans;  but  those  attempts  are  passed  over  in  silence  in  the 

*  Fitch  published  a  pamphlet  also,  in  1788,  which  he  entitled  "  The 
Original  Steam-Boat  supported,  or  a  Reply  to  Rumsey."  He  states 
therein  that  he  conceived  his  plan  of  steam-navigation  in  1785;  but  dis 
covered  afterwards,  that  two  Americans,  Mr.  Henry,  and  Mr.  Andrew 
Ellicot,  both  of  Pennsylvania,  had  thought  of  it  as  early  as  1775,  and 
1778.  See  Note  T. 


BRITISH    REVIEWS.  W 

British  publications  to  which  I  have  adverted.*     The  writer  SEC.  Mil 
of  the  article  Steam-Engine,  in  Rets7  New  Cyclopedia,  ob-  v^~v^w 
serves,  indeed,  that  steam-boats  had  been  used  in  America, 
before  the  introduction  of  them  by  Fulton;  and  "  were  be 
gun  there  by  Mr.  Symington!"  a  fact  very  creditable  to  Scot 
land,  but  altogether  new  in  America,  which  is  without  record 
or  tradition  of  the  labours  of  this  missionary. 

To  heighten  the  contrast  between  their  fairness  and  the 
disingenuity  of  Mr.  Golden,  the  Reviewers  treat  of  the  tor- 
pedos  of  Fulton,  in  a  strain,  which  would  imply,  that  his 
biographer  had  represented  him  as  the  first  to  propose  the 
explosion  of  gunpowder  under  water.  It  might  also  be  in 
ferred  from  their  language,  that  he  had  sought  to  vindicate  the 
offer  of  the  torpedos  to  the  different  governments  of  Europe, 
Novr,  as  to  the  point  of  discovery,  nothing  can  be  more  posi 
tive  and  unambiguous,  than  the  renunciation  in  the  biography 
"It  would,"  says  Mr.  Golden,  "be  doing  injustice  to  the  me 
mory  of  Mr.  Fulton,  not  to  notice,  that  Mr.  Fulton  did  not 
pretend  to  have  been  the  first  who  discovered  that  gunpowder 
might  be  exploded  with  effect  under  water;  nor  did  he  pretend 
to  have  been  the  first  who  attempted  to  apply  it  in  that  wa} 
as  the  means  of  hostility.  He  knew  well  what  had  been  don<, 
by  another  ingenious  native  American,  Bushnell,  in  our  revo 
lutionary  war."  The  Reviewers  repeat,  from  this  passage, 
the  instance  of  Bushnell  with  all  formality,  and  the  air  of 
drawing  it  from  their  own  store  of  knowledge! 

With  regard  to  the  conduct  of  Fulton  in  proffering  his  tor 
pedos  to  various  governments,  his  biographer  goes  no  farther, 
in  substance,  than  to  assert,  that  Fulton  reconciled  it  to  his 

*  Brissot  de  Warville  had  noticed  them  in  his  Travels  through  the 
United  States,  in  the  following  manner: 

Sept.  1788. 

"  J  went  this  day  to  see  an  experiment  near  the  Delaware,  on  a  boat, 
the  object  of  which  was  to  ascend  rivers  against  the  current.  The  in 
ventor  was  Mr.  Fitch,  who  had  formed  a  company  to  support  the  ex 
pense.  The  machine  which  I  saw  appears  well  executed  and  well 
adapted  to  the  design.  The  steam-engine  gives  motion  to  three  large 
oars  of  considerable  force,  which  were  to  give  sixty  strokes  per  mi 
nute.  Since  writing  this,  I  have  seen  Mr.  Rumsey  in  England.  He  is 
a  man  of  great  ingenuity  ;  and  by  the  explanation'  which  he  has  given 
me,  it  appears  that  his  discovery,  though  founded  on  a  similar  principle 
with  that  of  Mr.  Fitch,  is  very  different  from  it,  and  far  more  simple  in 
its  execution.  Mr.  Rumsey  proposed  then  (Feb.  1789)  to  build  a  vessel 
which  should  go  to  America  by  the  help  of  the  steam-engine,  and  without  sails. 
It  tuas  to  make  the  passage  in  fifteen  days.  I  perceive  with  pain  that  he 
has  not  yet  executed  his  project,  which,  when  executed,  will  introduce 
into  commerce  as  great  a  change  as  the  discovery  of  the  Cape  of  Good 


270  HOSTILITIES    OF    THE 

PART  I.  own  ideas  of  propriety,  and  acted  from  honest  impressions , 
^-*'~v-«^>  whether  false  or  correct.  The  proceeding  of  Mr.  Fulton  is 
certainly  supported  by  European  examples  without  number, 
and  may  be  considered  as  natural  in  every  sanguine  projector 
I  cannot  easily  see  how  an  American,  pursuing  mechanical 
inventions  in  Europe,  would  be,  prima  facie,  culpable  for 
offering  to  France  and  England  indiscriminately,  a  destructive 
engine  of  war.  The  success  of  the  one  or  the  other  power,  is 
to  be  supposed  indifferent  to  his  feelings.  I  grant  that,  if  the 
engine  could  be  turned  against  his  own  country,  he  would  never 
be  justifiable.  The  talents  and  contrivances  of  English  engi 
neers  have  been  lent  indiscriminately  to  aid  the  hostilities  of 
all  the  principal  nations  of  Europe;  with  the  sanction  of  the 
government,  when  the  interests  of  England  were  noi  likely  to 
„  be  affected.  The  Count  de  Bonneval  and  others  of  his  descrip 
tion  were  never  blamed,  in  Europe,  for  the  mere  fact  of  de 
voting  their  genius  and  skill  to  the  improvement  of  the  Turk 
ish  armies  and  fortifications.  Britain  is  now  enriching  herself 
by  supplying  both  Spain  and  her  colonies  with  the  means 
of  warfare;  from  her  manufactories  issued  the  weapons  and 
ammunition,  with  which  the  nations  of  Africa  assailed  and 
slaughtered  each  other  for  the  purpose  of  filling  her  slave 
ships. 

I  note  these  circumstances,  to  emblazon  the  modesty  of  the 
Reviewers  in  raising  an  outcry  against  the  conduct  of  Fulton, 
and  the  character  of  his  expedient  of  submarine  explosion. 
They  are,  forsooth,  filled  with  horror  at  this  "  succinct  mode 
of  murder  en  masse;"  these  "infernal  machines;"  forgetting 
the  machines  called  Congreve  rockets,  which, — while  the 
torpedos  can  be  directed  only  against  armaments, — have  been 
principally  used  by  the  British  against  the  towns  and  domestic 
dwellings  of  their  enemies;  sometimes,  as  in  the  instance  of 
Stonington,  to  envelope  in  flames,  houses  in  which  unoffend 
ing  American  women  and  children  were  placed  for  shelter. 
It  may  be  proposed,  as  a  problem  for  their  consideration, 
whether  the  destruction  of  one  of  the  bomb-vessels  employed 
on  that  occasion,  by  a  torpedo,  would  have  been  more  atro 
cious,  than  the  act  of  the  British  general  Sheaffe  at  the  town 
of  York  in  Canada,  who  left  in  the  fortification  from  which  he 
was  driven  by  the  American  army,  a  secret  mine,  that  ex 
ploded  a  moment  too  soon,  or  it  would  have  "  blown  whole 
,  regiments  into  the  air;"  and,  as  the  case  was,  killed  many 
brave  soldiers, — among  them,  the  lamented  Pike. 

"  Lord  St.  Vincent,"  say  the  Reviewers,  "  appears  to  have 
set  his  face  against  this  unworthy  mode  of  warfare,  the  tor 


BRITISH   REVIEWS.  271 

pedo;  feeling,  as  we  believe  every  British  officer  would  feel,  SEC.  vm. 
that  setting  aside  the  intent,  such  devices  were  for  the  weak  and  **^~*~**s 
not  for  the  strong.  In  his  own  mind,  Mr.  Pitt  did,  we  dare 
say,  condemn  it,  as  every  man  of  sense  and  honour  would." 
Now,  it  is  on  record,  that  these  two  eminent  personages,  and 
every  British  officer,  rejoiced  in  the  Congreve  rockets;  and 
that  a  board  of  British  officers  of  the  highest  rank  reported 
them,  after  their  trial  at  Boulogne  and  Flushing,  a  most 
eligible  auxiliary  to  the  British  arms.  To  show  how  innocent 
and  generous  a  device  they  are,  when  compared  with  that 
"succinct  mode  of  murder  en  masse,"  the  torpedo,  I  will  copy 
some  passages  of  the  ample  and  able  account  of  them  which 
is  given  in  Rees'  Cyclopedia,  article  Rocket. 

"  The  Congreve  Rocket.  These  rockets  are  of  various 
dimensions,  and  are  differently  armed,  according  as  they  are 
intended  for  the  field,  or  for  bombardment;  carrying  in  the 
first  instance  either  shells  or  canister  shot,  which  may  be  ex 
ploded  at  any  part  of  their  flight,  spreading  death  and  de 
struction  amongst  the  columns  of  the  enemy;  and  in  the  se 
cond,  where  they  are  intended  for  the  destruction  of  buildings, 
shipping,  stores,  &c.  they  are  armed  with  a  peculiar  species 
of  composition  which  never  fails  of  destroying  every  com 
bustible  material  with  which  it  comes  in  contact." 

"  The  carcass  rocket  has  been  used  in  almost  every  one  of 
our  expeditions.  They  did  incredible  execution  at  Copenhagen. 
At  the  siege  of  Flushing,  general  Monnet,  the  French  com 
mandant,  made  a  formal  remonstrance  to  Lord  Chatham  re 
specting  the  use  of  them  in  that  bombardment.  A  small 
corps  of  rocketeers,  in  the  memorable  battle  of  Leipsic, 
gloriously  maintained  the  honour  of  the  British  arms.  All  the 
more  minute  and  important  particulars  of  this  weapon,  both 
of  construction  and  composition,  are  very  properly  kept  a  pro 
found  secret.  The  largest  rocket  that  has  yet  been  construct 
ed,  has  not,  we  believe,  exceeded  three  hundred  weight;  but 
Sir  William  Congreve  seems  to  have  in  contemplation  others 
weighing  from  half  a  ton  to  a  ton." 

"  By  means  of  the  rocket,  the  most  extensive  destruction, 
even  amounting  to  annihilation,  may  be  carried  among  the 
ranks  of  an  advancing  enemy,  and  that  with  the  exposure  of 
scarcely  an  individual  For  this  purpose,  the  rockets  are  laid 
in  batteries,  &c.  They  facilitate  the  capture  of  a  ship  by 
boarding,  by  being  thrown  into  the  ports,  &c.;  the  confusiou 
and  destruction  which  thence  inevitably  ensue,  facilitate,  &c. 
They  are  peculiarly  adapted  to  add  to  the  dreadful  effect  of 
fire  ships,  which,  if  they  were  supplied  each  with  a  sufficient 


HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 

PART  I.  number  of  rockets,  such  an  extensive  and  devastating  fhe 
N^~V-^/  would  be  spread  in  every  direction,  as  to  invoke  every  vessel  «j/ 
the  enemy  in  that  destructive  element,  The  floating  rocket  car 
cass,  another  of  the  inventor's  applications,  may  be  thrown 
in  great  quantities  by  a  fair  wind,  against  any  fleet  or  arsenal, 
without  the  smallest  risk,  or  without  approaching  within  range 
of  guns,  &c." 

u  Little  more  need  be  said  in  reference  to  the  general  im 
portance  and  utility  of  the  rocket  system,  &c." 

The  inconsistency  of  the  Reviewers,  as  Englishmen,  is  fur 
ther  manifested  by  the  facts,  so  well  attested  as  to  be  unde 
niable,  that  the  British  ministry  conceived  strong  alarms  :it 
the  negociations  between  Fulton  and  the  French  government 
respecting  the  adoption  of  the  torpedo;  that  they  made  ove> 
tures  to  him,  and  drew  him  to  England;  that  they  encouraged 
his  experiments  with  a  view  to  employ  his  "  infernal  ma 
chines,"  if  found  effectual,  against  the  enemies  of  GreU 
Britain;  that  they  actually  made  an  attempt  to  destroy  lie 
Boulogne  flotilla  by  his  means;  and  that,  after  appointing  a 
committee  to  decide  upon  the  expediency  of  adopting  his 
"  devices,"  they  finally  rejected  them  altogether  as  imprac.- 
ticable, — not  as  cruel,  immoral,  or  dishonourable.  From 
what  passed,  it  is  not  uncharitable  to  suspect,  that  the  true- 
key  to  the  rejection,  is  furnished  in  the  saying  of  Lord  St. 
Vincent,  the  authenticity  of  which  the  Reviewers  do  not  dis 
pute.  "  Pitt  is  the  greatest  fool  that  ever  existed  to  encou 
rage  a  mode  of  war  w?hich  they  who  command  the  seas  do 
not  want."  Mr.  Pitt,  it  would  seem  from  the  statement  of 
Mr.  Golden,  remarked,  when  he  first  saw  a  drawing  of  the 
torpedo,  with  a  sketch  of  the  mode  of  applying  it,  and  un 
derstood  what  would  be  the  effects  of  the  explosion — that  "  if 
introduced  into  practice,  it  could  not  fail  to  annihilate  all 
military  marines," — an  effect  which  Great  Britain  could  no! 
feel  it  her  interest  to  promote. 

The  occasion  of  the  establishment  of  steam  navigation, 
appeared  to  the  Reviewers,  as  that  of  the  exploration  of  our 
western  regions  had  done,  very  suitable  for  the  vilification  ot 
the  American  people  at  large.  Accordingly,  they  proceed  iu 
this  exalted  language — "  The  vagrant  adventurer,  Fulton,  hav 
ing  failed  in  selling  his  infernal  machines,  sets  himself  to 
prove,  in  a  high  strain  of  moral  pathos,  that  c  blowing  up 
ships  of  war'  (so  as  not  to  leave  a  man  to  relate  the  dreadful 
catastrophe)  are  humane  experiments.  We  ought  not  to  wonder 
after  this,  perhaps,  that  the  character  of  Mr.  Fulton  has  sur 
vived  in  America  as  that  of  an  honest,  conscientious,  and  con- 


BRITISH  REVIEWS.  273 

sistent  man,  especially  as  Mr.  Cadwallader  Colden  has  sup-  SEC.  vm. 
ported  his  claim  to  it,"  &c.  ^^~^*~' 

Having  painted  the  American  engineer  in  the  blackest  co 
lours,  and  denied  to  him  all  original  genius,  they  have  not, 
with  the  London  Critical  Journal,  deemed  it  advisable  to 
represent  him  as  "  a  native  of  Paisley,  in  Scotland,*  where 
he  had  steam-boats  constructed,  actually  employed  both  for 
experiment  and  use."  But  the  author  of  the  article  in 
Thompson's  Annals,  being  more  kindly  in  his  language  con 
cerning  the  merits  of  Fulton,  and  therefore  not  under  the 
same  restraint,  clinches  him  and  his  offspring  thus — "  The 
experiments  by  Mr.  Miller  on  the  Forth  and  Clyde  Canal,  we 
have  been  informed,  were  either  seen  by,  or  communicated 
to,  the  late  Mr.  Fulton,  engineer  of  America,  who,  it  is  be 
lieved,  was  a  native,  or  at  least  resided  in  this  part  of  Scot 
land,  but  afterwards  went  to  America,  where  he  had  the  merit 
and  the  honour,  of  introducing  the  steam-boat,  upon  an  ex 
tensive  scale,  on  the  great  rivers  and  lakes  of  that  country:  so 
that  we  can  trace  this  invention  most  indisputably  to  a  British 
origin."  We  cannot  suppose  that  a  "  civil  engineer,"  treat 
ing  of  the  history  of  steam-boats,  in  the  month  of  April, 
1819,  was  ignorant  of  the  existence,  or  had  not  opened  the 
volume,  of  Fulton's  biography,  where  his  birth  place  is  so 
distinctly  and  authentically  stated.  The  misrepresentation 
which  I  have  just  quoted,  is,  therefore,  unpardonable,  and 
dishonours  the  valuable  Journal  in  which  it  is  found.  There 
is  a  littleness,  besides,  in  some  of  the  arts  practised  by  the 
Reviewers  to  gratify  their  spleen  in  this  business  of  steam 
boat  navigation,  which  is  truly  pitiable.  For  instance,  in  the 
index  to  the  nineteenth  volume  of  the  Quarterly  Review,  at 
the  word  c  Colden,'  we  read,  "  The  Life  of  Robert  Fulton— 
Us  bombastic  exordium;"  and  at  the  word  c  Fulton' — "  his 
ingratitude  to  England,"  &c.  making  the  index,  in  this  man 
ner,  the  vehicle  of  reproaches  of  a  particular  nature,  more 
direct  than  are  hazarded  in  the  body  of  the  volume. 

The  Reviewers  have  not  been  content,  in  the  article  under 
consideration,  with  mangling  the  reputation  of  Fulton  and  his 
performances,  but  have  turned  aside  to  assail  another  Ameri 
can,  for  whom  his  country  has  claimed  the  merit  of  an  im 
portant  invention.  I  allude  to  Godfrey,  who  is  contemptu- 

*  They  have,  however,  in  their  twentieth  number  made  Rittenhouse 
an  Englishman.  The  astronomer  was  born  within  seven  miles  of  Phir 
ladelphia;  and  never  absent  from  his  native,  country.  His  ancestors 
were  of  the  banks  of  the  Rhine- 

VOL.  I.—M  m 


274 


HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 


PART  I.  ously  mentioned  in  a  note,  and  then  introduced  in  the  te? 4 
"-^^v^x  with  greater  indignity.  The  note  is  as  follows — ^  Ji  man 
of  the,  name  of  Logan,  we  think,  as  obscure  as  Godfrey  himself* 
claimed  for  the  latter,  the  invention  of  Hartley's  Quadrant !-- 
two  years  after  the  description  of  it  had,  as  he  says,  appeared 
in  the  Philosophical  Transactions"  The  reference  to  Godfrey, 
in  the  text,  is  in  this  strain — "  We  are  almost  malicious  enoug:i 
to  wish  Franklin  were  alive,  to  see  with  what  little  ceremony 
his  admiring  countrymen  have  dove-tailed  him  in  betwee.i 
two  worthies,  one  of  whom  (Godfrey)  he  has  himself  desig 
nated,  in  his  correspondence,  as  a  most  dogmatical,  overbear 
ing,  and  disagreeable  fellow,  who  gave  himself  airs  because 
he  had  acquired  a  smattering  of  mathematics." 

Before  I  proceed  to  comment  upon  the  note,  which  is  to J 
choice  a  specimen  of  the  temper  and  knowledge  which  thes- 
Reviewers  bring  to  the  discussion  of  American  affairs,  to  be 
suffered  to  remain  without  elucidation,  I  will  beg  leave  t3 
quote  what  Franklin  has  really  said  of  Godfrey,  in  order  that 
my  reader  may  compare  it  at  once  with  their    report,  and 
better  understand  the  degree  of  reliance  to  be  placed  on  their 
citations.  Tt  is  not  in  his  Correspondence,  but  in  his  Memoirs, 
that  Franklin  speaks  of  Godfrey,  and  it  is  in  these  words: 
"  Among  the  first  members  of  our  Junto,  was  Thomas  God 
frey,  a  self-taught  mathematician,  great  in  his  way,  and  after 
wards  inventor  of  what  is  now  called  Hadky's  Quadrant.     But: 
he  knew  little  out  of  his  way,  and  was  not  a  pleasing  com 
panion;  as,  like  most  great  mathematicians  I  have  met  with 
he  expected  universal  precision  in  every  thing  said,  and  war 
for  ever  denying  or  distinguishing  upon  trifles,  to  the  disturb 
ance   of  all   conversation.     I  continued  to  board  with  God 
frey,  who  lived  in  part  of  my  house,  with  his  wife  and  child 
pen,  and  had  one  side  of  the  shop  for  his  glazier's  business, 
though  he  worked  little,  being  always  absorbed  in  mathema 
tics."  So  much  for  the  smattering  of  mathematics.    And  wen 
the  other  parts  of  the  pretended  designation  verified,  it  would 
be  difficult  to  perceive,  what  the  habits  of  the  mathematician 
in  society,  have  to  do  with  the  question  of  the  invention  oi 
the  quadrant. 

The  "  man  of  the  name  of  Logan,  as  obscure  as  Godfrey," 
can  be  no  other  than  "the  honourable  and  learned  Mr.  Logan* 
of  whom  Franklin  also  speaks  in  his  Memoirs,  and  who,  nex? 
to  William  Penn,  makes  the  most  considerable  figure  in  the 
History  of  Pennsylvania: — whom  the  proprietary  entrusted 
with  the  management  of  all  his  affairs  in  the  province,  and 
cherished  through  life  as  the  ablest  and  most  faithful  of  Im 


BRITISH  REVIEWS,  275 

friends; — who  marie  valuable  communications  to  the  Royal  srcr  vill. 
Society,  three  of  which  are  to  be  found  in  one  volume  of  s-^"v'^*' 
its  Transactions,  the  38th;*  whose  charges  as  Chief  Justice, 
of  Pennsylvania  were  reprinted  and  read  with  admiration, 
in  London:  who  corresponded  regularly  with  the  most 
eminent  among  the  scientific  worthies  of  his  time;  such  as 
Linnaeus,  Fabricius,  Dr.  Mead,  Dr.  Halley,  Sir  Hans 
Sloan,  Dr.  Fothergill,  Peter  Collinson,  William  Jones  (fa 
ther  of  Sir  William):  and  whom  all  consulted  with  the  de 
ference  due  to  a  mind  of  the  first  order,  in  the  variety  and 
strength  of  its  powers,  and  of  indefatigable  activity  in  the 
cultivation  and  advancement  of  nearly  every  branch  of  know 
ledge.  There  is  a  striking  similarity  in  the  talents,  studies, 
and  vocation  of  Dr.  Colden  and  James  Logan;  and  of  the 
latter  I  think  I  may  say,  without  exaggeration,  that  he  was 
excelled  in  no  respect  by  any  one  of  the  Europeans  who  set 
tled  on  this  continent;  and  that  if  he  is  obscure,  none  was 
better  entitled  to  the  most  brilliant  illustration.  An  '  honest 
chronicler,'  Proud,  with  whose  History  of  Pennsylvania, — 
the  labourers  for  the  American  department  in  the  Quarterly 
Review,  ought  not  to  be  unacquainted, — has  spoken  of  his 
*4  living  actions,"  and  made  a  summary  exposition  of  his 
character  and  career,  which  I  will  copy  for  their  instruction, 
vouching  myself,  from  personal  inquiry,  for  the  accuracy  of 
all  the  particulars. 

"  James  Logan  was  descended  of  a  family  originally  from 
Scotland,  where,  in  the  troubles  of  that  country,  occasioned  by 
the  affair  of  Earl  Gowrie,  in  the  reign  of  James  the  VI.  his 
grandfather,  Robert  Logan,  was  deprived  of  a  considerable 
estate;  in  consequence  of  which,  his  father,  Patrick  Logan, 
being  in  reduced  circumstances,  removed  into  Ireland,  and 
fixed  his  residence  at  Lurgan,  the  place  of  his  son  James' 
birth.  Patrick  Logan  had  the  benefit  of  a  good  education,  in 
the  university  of  Edinburgh;  where  he  commenced  master  of 
arts; — but  afterwards  joined  in  religious  society  with  the 
Quakers. — This,  his  son,  James  Logan,  being  endowed  with 
a  good  genius,  and  favoured  with  a  suitable  education,  made 
considerable  proficiency  in  divers  branches  of  learning  and 
science;  after  which  he  went  to  England;  from  whence,  in 
the  year  1699,  and  about  the  25th  of  his  age,  he  removed  to 

*  For  the  years  1733,  1734.  One  of  the  papers  is  entitled  "  Some 
experiments  concerning-  the  Impregnation  of  the  Seeds  of  Plants;" 
•another  "  Some  thoughts  concerning  the  Sun  and  Moon,  when  near 
the  horizon,  appearing  larger  than  when  near  the  zenith."  See  Note  U 


276  HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 

PART  I.   Pennsylvania,  in  company  with   William  Penn,  in  his  latter 
*^~v^*s  voyage  to  America;  and  in    1701,  he  was,  by  commissio.i 
from  the  Proprietary,  appointed  secretary  of  the  province,  an ,1 
clerk  of  the  council  for  the  same." 

u  He  adhered  lo  what  was  deemed  the  proprietary  interes! ; 
and  exerted  himself  with  great  fidelity  to  it.  He  held  tho 
several  offices  of  provincial  secretary,  commissioner  of  pro 
perty,  chief  justice,  and  for  near  two  years,  governed  the  pro 
vince,  as  president  of  the  council." 

u  Many  years  before  his  death,  he  retired  pretty  muc  i 
from  the  hurry  and  incumbrance  of  public  affairs,  and  spert 
the  latter  part  of  his  time,  principally  at  Stanton,  his  countr/ 
seat,  near  Germantown,  about  five  or  six  miles  from  Philadel 
phia;  where  he  enjoyed,  among  his  books,  that  leisure  i  i 
which  men  of  letters  take  delight,  and  corresponded  with  the 
literati  in  different  parls  of  Europe.  He  was  well  versed  i  i 
both  ancient  and  modern  learning,  acquainted  with  the  ori 
ental  tongues,  a  master  of  the  Latin,  Greek,  French,  an  1 
Italian  languages;  deeply  skilled  in  the  mathematics,  and  in  „ 
natural  and  moral  philosophy;  as  several  pieces  of  his  ow»i 
writing,  in  Latin,  &c.  demonstrate;  some  of  which  have  gon<^ 
through  divers  impressions  in  different  parls  of  Europe,  am! 
are  highly  esteemed.  Among  his  productions  of  this  nature, 
his  Experimenta  Jlleletemata  de  Plantarum  Gencratione,  or  his 
Experiments  on  the  Indian  Corn  or  JWaize  of  America,  with 
his  observations  arising  therefrom,  on  the  generation  of  plants, 
published  in  Latin,  at  Leyden,  in  1739,  and  afterwards,  ii; 
1747,  rcpublished  in  London,  with  an  English  version  on  th< 
opposite  page,  by  Dr.  /.  Fothergill,  are  both  curious  and  in 
genious. — Along  with  this  piece  was  likewise  printed,  h 
Latin,  at  I^eyden,  another  treatise,  by  the  same  author,  en 
titled,  '  Canonumpro  invcniendis  rcfractionum,  turn  simplicium, 
turn  in  lentibus  dupliciwrtfocis,  demonstrationes  geometrical^— 
"  t/fotore  Jacobo  Logan,  Judice  supremo  et  Prxside  provincio 
Pensilvaniensis,  in  .America."  And  in  his  old  age,  he  trans 
lated  Cicero's  excellent  treatise,  De  senectutc,  which,  with  his 
explanatory  notes,  was  printed  in  Philadelphia,  with  a  pre 
face  or  encomium,  by  Benjamin  Franklin,  afterwards  Dr. 
Franklin,  of  that  cily,  in  1774.  He  was  one  of  the  people 
called  Quakers,  and  died  on  the  31st  of  October,  1751,  aged 
about  77  years; — leaving  as  a  monument  of  his  public  spirit 
and  benevolence  to  the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  a  library, 
which  he  had  been  50  years  in  collecting;  (since  called  the 
Loganian  Library)  intending  it  for  the  common  use  and  bene 
fit  of  all  lovers  of  learning.  It  was  said  to  contain  the  best 


BRITISH    REVIEWS.  277 

editions  of  the  best  books,  in  various  languages,  arts  and  SEC.Vlll. 
sciences,  and  to  be  the  largest,  ami  by  far  the  most  valuable,  \^-N-^^ 
collection  of  the  kind,  at  that  time,  in  this  part  of  the  world." 

The  reputation  which  James  Logan  deservedly  enjoyed  for 
a  profound  acquaintance  with  the  mathematics,  led  Godfrey 
to  seek  his  notice  and  aid,  and  to  consult  him  on  his  projects 
in  mechanical  philosophy.  That  of  the  improvement  of  Da 
vis'  Quadrant  struck  Logan  as  of  the  greatest  ingenuity  and 
importance;  and  as  Godfrey  was  then  unknown  beyond  his 
native  province,  he  undertook  to  be  the  herald  and  voucher  of 
his  invention  with  the  philosophers  of  London.  In  the  month 
of  May,  1 732,  he  addressed  a  letter  on  the  subject,  to  Dr. 
Edmund  Halley;  in  which  he  described  fully  the  construc 
tion  and  uses  of  Godfrey's  instrument.  The  following  pas 
sages  of  this  letter  explain  his  views  of  the  case,  and  tiie  mo 
tives  and  objects  of  his  interposition. 

"  I  shall  presume  from  thy  favour  shown  to  me  in  England, 
in  1724,  to  communicate  an  invention  that,  whether  it  answer 
the  end  or  not,  will  be  allowed,  I  believe,  to  deserve  thy  re 
gard.  I  have  it  thus." 

"  A  young  man  born  in  this  country,  Thomas  Godfrey  by 
name,  by  trade  a  glazier,  who  had  no  other  education  than  to 
learn  to  read  and  write,  with  a  little  common  arithmetic, 
having  in  his  apprenticeship  with  a  very  poor  man  of  that 
trade,  accidentally  met  with  a  mathematical  book,  took  such 
a  fancy  to  the  study,  that,  by  the  natural  strength  ot'his  genius, 
without  any  instructor,  he  soon  made  himself  master  of  that, 
and  of  every  other  of  the  kind  he  could  borrow  or  procure  in 
English;  and  finding  there  was  more  to  be  had  in  Latin  books, 
under  all  imaginable  discouragements,  applied  himself  to  the 
study  of  that  language,  till  he  could  pretty  well  understand  an 
author  on  these  subjects;  after  which,  the  first  time  I  ever 
saw  or  heard  of  him,  to  my  knowledge,  he  came  to  borrow 
Sir  Isaac  Newton's  Principia  of  me.  Inquiring  of  him  here 
upon,  who  he  was,  I  was  indeed  astonished  at  his  request; 
but  after  a  little  discourse,  he  soon  became  welcome  to  that 
or  any  other  book  I  had.  This  young  man  about  18  months 
since,  told  me  he  had  for  some  time  been  thinking  of  an  in 
strument  for  taking  the  distances  of  the  stars  by  reflecting 
speculums,  which  he  believed  might  be  of  service  at  sea; 
and  not  long  after  he  showed  me  a  common  sea  quadrant,  to 
which  he  had  fitted  two  pieces  of  looking-glass  in  such  a 
manner  as  brought  two  stars  at  almost  any  distance  to  coin 
cide.  (Then  follows  a  description  of  the  instrument.) 

"  But  I  am  now  sensible  I  have  trespassed  in  being  so  par- 


278 


HOSTILITIES  OK  THL 


PART  I.  ticular  when  writing  to  Dr.  Halley;  for  I  well  know  thai  10 
Vu^-v^/  a  gentlemen  noted  for  his  excellent  talent  of  reading,  appre 
hending,  and  greatly  improving,  less  would  have  been  suffi 
cient;  but  as  this  possibly  may  be  communicated  by  thee,  I 
shall  crave  leave  farther  to  add,  that  the  use  of  the  instrument 
is  very  easy,"  &c. 

u  If  the  method  of  discovering  the  longitude  by  the  moon  is 
to  meet  with  a  reward,  and  this  instrument,  which,  for  all  tint 
I  have  ever  read  or  heard  of,  is  an  invention  altogether  new, 
be  made  use  of,  in  that  case  I  would  recommend  the  inventor 
to  thy  justice  and  notice.  He  now  gets  his  own  and  family's 
bread  (for  he  is  married)  by  the  labour  of  his  own  hands  only, 
by  that  mean  trade.  He  had  begun  to  make  tables  of  the  moo'i, 
on  the  very  same  principles  with  thine,  till  I  lately  put  a  copy  if 
those  that  have  lain  so  many  years  printed,  but  not  published, 
with  W.  Innys,  into  his  hands ,  and  then  highly  approving  thet.iy 
he  desisted." 

In  the  same  year,  1732,  Godfrey  prepared  himself,  an  ac 
count  of  his  invention,  addressed  to  the  Royal  Society;  but 
it  was  not  then  transmitted,  from  the  expectation  which  he 
entertained  of  the  effect  of  the  letter  to  Halley.  No  notice, 
however,  was  taken  of  it  by  Halley,  and  after  an  interval  of 
a  year  and  a  half,  Logan  resolved  to  have  the  matter  submitted 
immediately  to  the  Royal  Society.  For  this  purpose  he  trans 
mitted  a  copy  of  the  letter,  together  wilh  the  paper  of  God 
frey,  to  Mr.  Peter  Collinson,  an  eminent  botanist  and  member 
of  the  society,  engaging  him  to  lay  them  before  that  body. 
The  result  is  detailed  in  the  following  authentic  letter*  to 
Logan,  from  his  respectable  friend,  Captain  Wright,  who  took 
charge  of  his  communications  to  Collinson. 

London,  Feb.  4th,  1734. 
MR.  JAMES  LOGAN. 

Sir — Your  favour  of  December  4th  I  have  received,  and 
immediately  carried  that  inclosed  to  Mr.  Collinson  (Jan.  26) 
\vho  with  pleasure  received  that,  as  he  had  done  the  former; 
and  after  reading  it,  with  an  agreeable  smile,  he  said,  "  I  mak<; 
no  doubt  of  removing  the  uneasiness  our  good  friend  is  under, 
which  is  all  caused  by  some  of  Dr.  Halley^  cunning."  He 
very  much  referred  to  the  management  of  Mr.  Jones's  inte 
rest,  as  well  as  using  his  own,  to  have  your  letters  communi 

*  Taken  from  the  original,  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  George  Logan, 
•he  grandson  of  James  Logan,  and  who  forms  one  pretty  notable  excep 
tion,  at  least,  to  the  rule  of  the  Quarterly  Review — that  "  there  is  no 
•>such  person  known  in  America  as  a  respectable  country  gentleman  " 


BRITISH  REVIEWS.  279 

cated  to  the  Royal  Society  in  the  most  proper  and  likely  man-  SEC.  Viu. 
ner  to  have  effect.  v*-^v^' 

I  soon  found  means  to  take  a  glass  with  Mr.  Jones,*  who 
gave  me  his  company  a  whole  afternoon;  when  he  often  hinted 
(it  Dr.  Halley^s  ungenerous  treatment  of  you,  but  said  that  ivas 
not  the  only  time,  for  the  doctor  had  been  guilty  of  such  things 
to  others.  He  very  strongly  believes  Mr.  Hadley  was  the 
inventor  of  his  own  instrument,  and  gives  these  reasons  to 
support  it:  That  as  he  had  dwelt  so  long  on  improving  and 
bringing  to  perfection  the  reflecting  telescope,  he  could  not 
miss  of  knowing  how  to  bring  two  objects  to  coincide  by  spe- 
culums;  and  he  as  firmly  believes  Thomas  Godfrey  was  the 
inventor  of  his  instrument  by  the  strength  of  his  genius  as  Had 
ley  was  of  his  by  his  help  from  the  reflecting  telescope,  and 
says  each  one  ought  to  have  the  merit  of  his  own  instrument. 
He  then  asked  me  the  use  of  the  bow  I  brought  him  last  year, 
and  in  what  respect  it  exceeded  Davis's  quadrant?  I  told  him 
as  far  as  I  could,  but  that  for  my  own  part  I  had  never  used 
it.  He  was  pleased  with  the  invention,  and  said  it  deserved 
notice,  if  it  answered  what  was  proposed,  and  desired  I  would 
get  one  made;  for  it  would  signify  nothing  to  mention  it  to  the 
society,  without  a  model;  and  that,  being  produced,  would  be 
a  strong  voucher  for  Thomas  Godfrey,  to  show  that  he  had  a 
capacity  and  a  genius  tending  that  way;  and  it  would  be  a 
very  good  introduction  for  the  reading  of  your  letter  to  Dr. 
Halley.  I  got  one  made  in  two  days,  and  carried  it  to  Mr. 
Collinson  (30th  Jan.)  who  sent  it  to  Sir  Hans  Sloan's;  where 
it  underwent  an  examination  by  four  or  five  members,  one  of 
which  was  Mr.  Hadley,  who,  with  the  others,  highly  approved 
of  it.  The  next  day  it  was  produced  to  the  Royal  Society, 
where  Mr.  Norris  and  myself  were  introduced  by  Mr.  Collin 
son;  and  upon  reading  the  description  of  the  bow,  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  hearing  your  first  letter  to  Dr.  Halley  read,  which 
was  all  that  was  then  read;  and  when  done,  Mr.  Machen  ad 
dressed  the  president  (or  the  gentleman  who  supplied  his 
place;  for  Sir  H.  Sloan  was  not  there,  being  absent  upon  ac 
count  of  his  brother-in-law's  death),  and  said  he  had  the 
vouchers  ready  on  the  table  for  any  one^s  perusal,  who  might 
doubt  of  the  truth  of  that  letter,  or  the  instrument  being  ge 
nuine,  and  no  ways  taken  from  Mr.  Hartley's,  but  found  out 
about  the  same  time  that  his  was,  or  rather  prior  to  it,  if  the 
vouchers  were  true;  and  if  they  are  not,  then,  said  he,  "  we 

*  Father  of  the  celebrated  Sir  William  Jones,  and  an  eminent  ma- 
hematician. 


280  HOSTILITIES    OF    THE 

PART  I.  must  believe  that  all  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  are  combined 
v-^"v~v^  to  impose  on  the  society — which  no  reasonable  man  can  do," 
He  said  some  shrewd  things  of  Dr.  Halley^  and  concluded  with 
saying  that  the  inventor  claimed  the  justice  of  having  that 
description  registered,  which  he  thought  no  one  could  deny 
him;  and  should  that  instrument  be  the  park  for  the  longitude, 
the  inventors  of  the  rest  must  dispute  their  priority  before  ihe 
learned  in  law.  No  person  said  any  thing  against  it,  so  that 
it  will  be  registered.  Mr.  Williams  has  been  under  seme  pain 
for  these  two  transactions,  as  miscarried  in  Jones's  hands,  but 
hope  he  has  cleared  it  up  to  your  satisfaction.  If  not,  I  am 
certain  of  doing  it  on  my  arrival. 

My  hearty  desires  for  yours  and  your  good  family's  health, 
to  whom  my  best  respects.  I  am,  dear  sir, 

Your  obliged  humble  servant, 

EDWARD  WRIGHT. 

In  the  month  of  June,  1734,  Mr.  Logan  addressed  to  the 
Rojal  Society,  "A  further  Account  of  Thoraas  Godfrey's 
Improvement  of  Davis's  Quadrant  transferred  to  the  Marinei's 
Bow,"  which,  under  this  title,  was  inserted  implicitly  in  the 
volume  of  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  for  the  same 
year.*  I  proceed  to  extract  some  parts  of  Logan's  paper, 
which  develop  further  the  history  of  the  case. 

"  Being  informed  that  this  improvement,  proposed  by  God 
frey,  of  this  place,  for  observing  the  sun's  altitude  at  sea,-  with 
more  ease  and  expedition  than  is  practicable  by  the  common 
instrument  in  use  for  that  purpose,  was  last  winter  laid  before 
the  Royal  Society,  in  his  own  description  of  it,  and  that  some 
gentlemen  wished  to  see  the  benefit  intended  by  it  more  fully 
and  clearly  explained,  I,  who  have  here  the  opportunity  of 
knowing  the  author's  thoughts  on  such  subjects,  being  per 
suaded  in  my  judgment,  that,  if  the  instrument,  as  he  pro 
poses  it,  be  brought  into  practice,  it  will  in  many  cases,  be  of 
great  service  to  navigation,  have,  therefore,  thought  it  proper 
to  draw  up  a  more  Cull  account  of  it  than  the  author  himself 
has  given,"  &c. 

"  Some  masters  of  vessels,  who  sail  from  hence  to  the  West 
Indies,  have  got  some  of  them  made,  as  well  as  they  can  be 
done  here,  and  have  found  so  great  advantage  in  the  facility 
and  the  ready  use  of  them  in  those  southerly  latitudes,  that 
they  reject  all  others.  It  is  now  four  years  since  Thomas 
Godfrey  hit  on  this  improvement:  for  his  account  of  it,  laid 

*  Month  of  December.    Article  3d. 


BRITISH    REVIEWS.  281 

before  the  society  last  winter,  in  which  he  mentioned  two  SEC.vm. 
years,  was  wrote  in  1732,  and  in  the  same  year,  1750,  after  >-^-v-^^ 
he  was  satisfied  in  this  of  a  real  improvement  in  the  quadrant, 
he  applied  himself  to  think  of  the  other,  viz.  the  reflecting 
instrument  by  speculums,  for  a  help  in  the  case  of  longitude, 
though  it  is  also  useful  in  taking  altitudes;  and  one  of  these, 
as  has  been  abundantly  proved  by  the  maker,  and  those  who 
had  it  with  them,  was  taken  to  sea,  and  there  used  in  observ 
ing  the  latitude,  the  winter  of  that  year,  and  brought  back  to 
Philadelphia  before  the  end  of  February,  1731,  and  was  in 
my  keeping  some  months  immediately  after." 

"  It  was  indeed  unhappy,  that,  having  it  in  my  power,  see 
ing  he  had  no  acquaintance  nor  knowledge  of  persons  in  Eng 
land,  that  I  transmitted  not  an  account  of  it  sooner.  Bui  I  had 
other  affairs,  of  more  importance  to  me;  and  it  was  owing  to 
an  accident  which  gave  me  some  uneasiness,  viz.  his  attempt 
ing  to  publish  some  account  of  it  in  print  here,  that  I  trans 
mitted  it  at  last,  in  May,  1732,  to  Dr.  Halley,  to  whom  I  made 
no  doubt  but  the  invention  would  appear  entirely  new;  and 
I  must  own  I  could  not  but  wonder  that  our  good  will  at  least 
was  never  acknowledged.  This,  on  my  part,  was  all  the  merit 
I  had  to  claim,  nor  did  I  then,  or  now,  assume  any  other  in 
either  of  these  instruments.  I  only  wish  that  the  ingenious 
inventor  himself  might,  by  some  means,  be  taken  notice  of, 
in  a  manner  that  might  be  of  real  advantage  to  him." 

In  his  letter  to  the  Royal  Society,  Godfrey  expresses  him 
self  in  the  simple  and  natural  manner  which  bespeaks  en 
tire  sincerity.  He  begins  thus — "Gentlemen:  As  none  are 
better  able  than  the  Royal  Society  to  prove  and  judge  whether 
such  inventions  as  are  proposed  for  the  advancing  useful 
knowledge  will  answer  the  pretensions  of  the  inventors  or  not; 
and  as  I  have  been  made  acquainted,  though  at  so  great  a  dis 
tance,  of  the  candour  of  your  learned  Society  in  giving  en 
couragement  to  such  as  merit  approbation,  I  have,  therefore, 
presumed  to  lay  before  the  Society,  the  following,  craving  par 
don  for  my  boldness."  He  then  states  that  finding  with  what 
difficulty  a  tolerable  observation  of  the  sun  was  taken  by 
Davis's  quadrant;  he,  therefore,  applied  his  thoughts  for  up 
wards  of  two  years,  to  find  a  certain  instrument.  After  de 
scribing  his  improvement  and  the  extent  of  its  utility,  he  con 
cludes  with  the  following  phrase — "  I  hope  Dr.  Halley  has 
received  a  more  full  account  of  this  from  J.  Logan,  Esq.; 
therefore  I  shall  add  no  more  than  that  I  am,  &c." 

Neither  Logan  nor  Godfrey  knew  at  the  date  of  these  com 
munications,  that  Mr.  John  Hadley,  the  vice-president  of  the 

VOL.  I.— N  n 


28%  HOSTILITIES    OF    THE 

PART  I.  Royal  Society,  had  presented  a  paper  to  that  body,  dated  M  ty 
k^-*^^**^  13ih,  1731,*  containing  a  full  description  and  rationale  of  a 
reflecting  quadrant  of  ihe  same  character,  which  he  clainud 
as  his  invention,  and  that  his  paper  was  inserted  in  the  volui  10 
of  the  Philosophical  Transactions,  for  that  year.  This  com 
munication  of  Hadley  is  the  foundation  of  his  title  to  the  in 
vention.  There  is  no  direct  proof,  whi(  h  I  can  discover,  of 
his  having  seen  or  heard  of  Godfrey's  instrument;  but  t!ie 
quotations  which  I  have  made  establish  the  following  facts — 
that  Godfrey,  without  the  advantage  of  a  hint,  or  of  aid,  frcrn 
any  quarter,  completed  it  in  the  year  1730;  that  it  was  taken 
to  sea  soon  after,  and  there  used,  in  the  course  of  the  winier 
of  that  year,  in  observing  the  latitude,  and  brought  back  Le- 
fore  the  end  of  February,  1731:  that  there  was,  therefore  a 
possibility  of  its  being  made  known  to  Hadley,  within  goad 
time  for  the  preparation  of  his  paper  of  the  month  of  May. 

The  tradition  in  Philadelphia  is,  that  it  was  carried  to  Ja- 
rnaica  by  a  captain  of  Godfrey's  acquaintance,  and  shown  there 
to  a  captain  of  a  ship  just  departing  for  England,  who  gave 
information  of  it  to  Hadley,  as  a  person  distinguished  for  his 
skill  and  ingenuity  in  the  construction  and  improvement  of 
optical  instruments.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  merit  of  priority, 
such  as  it  is,  lies  manifestly  with  Godfrey;  his  invention  was 
as  complete,  and  passed  quickly  into  use  among  the  American 
masters  of  vessels.  Mr.  Logan  could  have  no  imaginable 
motive  except  benevolence  and  the  promotion  of  science,  for 
producing  and  urging  the  claims  of  Godfrey;  he  expressly  dis 
avows  any  pretension  to  a  share  in  the  invention;  his  eminent 
capacity  to  judge  of  its  character,  precludes  all  idea  of  his 
having  been  deceived,  as  the  elevation  of  his  nature  and  sta 
tion  does  that  of  his  having  stooped  to  practise  a  deception. 
It  will  be  seen,  by  an  extract  which  I  am  about  to  make  from 
one  of  his  letters,  of  a  later  date,  to  the  mathematician  Wm. 
Jones,  that  he  retained  his  persuasion  of  Godfrey's  title,  and 
was  not  without  suspicion  of  foul  play. 

"  I  have  very  little  to  say  on  the  subject  of  instruments,  but 
as  in  thy  teaching,  I  formerly  observed  thy  methods  greatly 
excelled  in  neatness,  so  one  instrument  may  for  speed  and 
certainty  very  much  exceed  another;  and  Thomas  Godfrey's 
inventions  were,  I  think,  truly  valuable,  that  by  the  reflecting 
speculums  appears  extremely  so.  I  have  here  seen  two  of 
them  as  made  by  Hadley's  direction,  who  enjoys  both  the  re- 

*  The  y.lume  of  the  Transactions  in  which  it  is  contained,  was  not, 
in  fact,  published,  until  after  the  date  of  Logan's  Letters. 


BRITISH    REVIEWS.  283 

putation  and  profit  of  them,   and  I  cannot  but  admire  at  it.  SEC.  VIII. 
Thomas  Godfrey  has  indeed  a  fine  genius  for  the  mathema-  ^-^^^^ 
tics,  and  it  would,  for  the  sake  of  his  birth  place,   which  is 
the  same  as  that  of  my  own  children,  be  a  great  pleasure  to 
me  to  see  him  rewarded." 

The  quotation  which  I  have  made  from  Franklin,  shows 
that  he  ascribed  the  quadrant  called  Hadley's,  to  Godfrey;  and 
as  he  at  one  time  lived  under  the  same  roof  with  the  mathe 
matician,  and  constantly  took  an  interest  in  his  affairs,  his 
testimony  is  of  no  little  moment.  We  have  a  decided  opinion 
to  the  same  effect,  from  another  of  his  cotemporaries,  Dr. 
John  Ewing,  a  former  provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  one  of  the  most  acute  and  learned  mathematicians 
whom  this  country  has  produced.*  Dr.  Rittenhouse,  when 
requested  to  pronounce  in  the  matter,  stated  in  writing,  that 
he  knew  Mr.  Godfrey  and  his  quadrant,  and  had  no  doubt 
both  Godfrey  and  Hadley  were  original  inventors;  that  both 
instruments  depended  upon  the  same  principles,"  &c.  A 
weight  of  authority  is  thus  found  in  favour  of  Godfrey's  merit, 
sufficient  to  satisfy  us  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  If  we 
claim  no  more  for  him  than  the  having  accomplished  simulta 
neously  the  same  as  is  ascribed  to  Hadley,  we  shall  have 
reason  to  be  proud  of  his  name;  and,  in  comparing  the  cir 
cumstances  of  his  education  and  situation  with  those  of  the 
vice-president  of  the  Royal  Society,  be  entitled  to  attribute 
to  him  a  superior,  nay  almost  unrivalled  natural  genius.  It 
is  related  that  when  Newton's  Principia  Mathematica  made 
their  appearance,  "  the  best  mathematicians  were  obliged  to 
study  them  with  care,  and  those  of  a  lower  rank  durst  not 
venture  upon  them,  till  encouraged  by  the  testimonies  of  the 
learned."  The  American  glazier,  without  encouragement 
from  any  quarter,  wholly  self-taught  in  the  mathematics  and 
in  the  Latin,  ventured  upon,  and  mastered  this  great  work  at 
an  early  age;  and  finally,  with  the  embarrassments  of  an  hum 
ble  trade,  and  extreme  poverty,  produced  the  most  useful  of 

*  See  a  paper  of  Dr.  Ewing  in  the  1st  vol.  of  the  Transactions  of  A. 
P.  S. ;  describing  an  improvement  of  his  own  in  the  construction  of 
Godfrey's  quadrant.  He  calls  it  the  most  useful  of  all  astronomical  in 
struments,  the  world  ever  knew.  There  is,  also,  inserted  in  the  Ame 
rican  periodical  work,  the  Port  Folio,  for  Dec.  1817,  a  letter  of  Dr. 
Ewing,  in  which  he  says,  "  Logan  gives  a  full  description  of  the  re 
flecting  instrument  Mr  Godfrey  constructed,  which  appears  to  be  the 
very  instrument  now  in  common  use;  some  very  trifling  differences  in 
the  construction  only  excepted;  which  might  have  been  made  by  Mr. 
Hadley,  and  which  are  hardly  worth  the  mentioning  in  the  invention  of 
such  an  excellent  and  uncommon  instrument." 


284  HOSTILITIES    OF   THE 

PART  I.  astronomical  instruments.  He  may  have  been,  in  the  courtly 
s^v~^/  language  of  the  Quarterly  Review,  "  a  dogmatical,  overbearing 
and  disagreeable  fellow;"  but  he  must  still  attract  the  highest 
admiration  for  the  strength  of  his  intellectual  powers,  and  the 
resolution  and  perseverance  of  his  spirit.  Let  his  countrymen, 
universally,  attach  his  name  to  the  quadrant,  and  in  the  course 
of  a  few  ages,  the  race  between  the  names  of  Had  ley  and  God 
frey  will  end  in  the  same  manner  as  the  rivalry  of  the  British 
and  American  nations  in  numbers,  power,  and  consideration. 
There  is  not  the  least  colour,  even  for  the  supposition,  lhat 
the  American  mathematician  drew  the  notion  of  his  improve 
ment  upon  Davis's  quadrant,  from  an  external  source;  every 
circumstance  imposes  the  belief  that  it  was  entirely  the  pro 
duct  of  his  own  genius  and  combinations.  This  is  not  the 
case,  however,  with  respect  to  Hadley,  though  we  should  dis 
miss  from  the  question,  the  possibility  of  his  being  indebted  to 
Godfrey's  labours.  I  do  not  know  but  that  the  Quarterly  iie- 
viewers  may  consider  the  authority  which  I  am  about  to  oite 
— Dr.  Hutton,  F.  R.  S.  of  London  and  Edinburgh,  md 
Emeritus  Professor  of  mathematics  in  the  Royal  Military 
Academy  at  Woolwich — quite  as  obscure  as  Logan  and  God 
frey.  Nevertheless,  I  will  venture  to  appeal  to  his  Mathema 
tical  and  Philosophical  Dictionary,  in  which,  at  the  article 
Quadrant,  I  find  the  following  statement. 

"  Hadley's  Quadrant.     So  called  from  its  inventor  John 
Hadley,  Esq.  is  now  universally  used,  as  the  best  of  any,  for 
nautical  and  other  observations.     It  seems  the  first  idea  of  this 
excellent  instrument  was  suggested  by  Dr.  Hooke;  for  Dr. 
Sprat,  in  his  History  of  the  Royal  Society,  p.  246,  mentions 
the  invention  of  a  new  instrument  for  taking  angles  by  reflec 
tion,  by  which  means  the  eye  at  once  sees   the  two  objects 
both  as  touching  the  same  point,  though  distant  almost  to  a 
semi-circle;  which  is  of  great  use  for  making  exact  observa 
tions  at  sea.     This  instrument  is  described  and  illustrated  by  j 
a  figure  in  Hooke's  posthumous  works,  p.  503.     But  as  it  ad-  j 
mitted  of  only  one  reflection,   it  would  not  answer  the  pur 
pose.     Tlie  matter,  however,  was  at  last  effected  by  Sir  Isaac  I 
Newton,  who  communicated  to  Dr.  Halley  a  paper  of  his  own  I 
writing,  containing  the  description  of  an  instrument  with  two  I 
reflections,  which  soon   after  the  doctor's  death  was  found  f 
among  his  papers  by  Mr.  Jones,  by  whom  it  was  communi 
cated  to  the  Royal  Society,  and  it  was  published  in  the  Phi 
losophical  Transactions  for  the  year  1742.     How  it  happened 
that  Dr.  Halley  never  mentioned  this  in  his  life  time,  is  difficult 
to  account  for;  more  especially  as  Mr.  Hadley  had  described.. 


BRITISH   REVIEWS. 


285 


in  the  Transactions  for  1731,  his  instrument  which  is  construct-  SEC.VIII. 
ed  on  the  same  principles.*  Mr.  Hadley,  who  was  well  ac-  ^^^-^^ 
quaintecl  with  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  might  have  heard  him  say, 
that  Dr.  Hooke's  proposal  could  be  effected  by  means  cf  a 
double  reflection;  and  perhaps  in  consequence  of  this  hint, 
he  might  apply  himself,  without  any  previous  knowledge  of 
what  Newton  had  actually  done,  to  the  construction  of  his  in 
strument.  Mr.  Godfrey,  too,  of  Pennsylvania,  had  recourse 
to  a  similar  expedient;  for  which  reason  some  gentlemen  of 
that  colony  have  ascribed  the  invention  of  this  excellent  in 
strument  to  him.  The  truth  may  probably  6e,  that  each  of 
these  gentlemen  discovered  the  method  independent  of  one  an 
other," 

The  opinion  thus  liberally  and  decorously  expressed  by  Dr. 
Button,  was,  without  doubt,  that  of  the  Royal  Socieiy  in 
1733,  when  the  whole  matter  was  brought  under  their  con 
sideration.  Otherwise,  they  never  would  have  consented  to 
admit  into  the  volume  of  their  Transactions,  the  paper  of 
Logan,  after  they  had  published  that  of  Hadley.  The  Quar 
terly  Review  has  attributed  to  Logan — how  accurately  let  the 
reader  now  decide — the  avowal  that  two  years  had  elapsed 
since  the  appearance  of  Hadley's  paper,  when  he  preferred 
the  claim  of  Godfrey.  But,  admitting  the  interval  to  be  so 
great,  if  we  admit  also,  the  facts,  of  whuh  there  can  be  no 
doubt, — that  Godfrey's  instrument  was  completed  in  1730, 
and  that  Logan,  when  he  communicated  the  invention  to  Dr. 
Halley,  in  1732,  believed,  as  he  asserts,  that  it  would  appear 
entirely  new  to  Halley — the  delay  in  the  communication  of  it, 
which  Logan  at  the  same  time  satisfactorily  explains,  can  fur 
nish  no  argument  nor  presumption  against  the  validity  of  God 
frey's  claim.  The  dispute  between  Sir  Isaac  Newton  and 
Leibnitz,  concerning  the  invention  of  the  method  of  fluxions, 

*  If  we  consider  the  character  which  Halley  bore,  according  to  the 
statement  of  captain  Wright;  his  silence  with  respect  to.  Newton's 
paper;  and  the  suppression  of  Logan's  letter — the  conviction  forces 
itself  upon  the  mind  that  he  hud  resolved  to  secure  the  credit  of  the 
invention  to  Hadley.  By  the  History  of  the  Royal  Society,  we  find 
that  on  the  1st  of  September,  1732,  after  the  receipt  oi  Logan's  letter, 
Halley  volunteered  to  attend,  on  the  part  of  the  Society,  a  trial  at  sea, 
of  Hadley's  quadrant,  and  reported  in  its  favour,  without  giving  the 
least  intimation  of  his  knowledge  of  the  conception  or  completion  of 
•  the  instrument  in  any  other  quarter.  The  paper  of  Newton  is  inserted 
in  the  Philosophical  Transactions,  No.  465.  p.  155,  with  the  descrip 
tion — "  A  true  copy  of  a  paper,  in  the  hand  writing  of  Sir  Isaac  New 
ton,  found  among  the  papers  of  the  late  Dr  Halley,  containing  a  de 
scription  cfan  instrument  for  observing  the  moon's  distance  frena  the 
fixed  stars  at  sea." 


286  HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 

PART  I.  presents  a  case,  similar  to  the  present,  in  several  respects 
•~^^~«^'  Newton  published  his  method  only  in  1704,  after  Leibnib 
had  given  his  Differential  Calculus  to  the  world.  The  former 
traced  his  invention  to  the  years  1665,  1666;  and  the  Roya 
Society  decided  in  his  favour  upon  this  ground.  The  scientific 
world  at  large  has  acquiesced  in  the  opinion,  that  the  credi1 
of  origination   is  due  to   both  these  illustrious  philosophers, 
and  such,  in  all  likelihood,  will   be  its  conclusion  in  regarc 
to  Godfrey  and  Hadley. 

3.  We  might  have  expected  from  the  Quarterly  Review 
about  the  same  degree  of  scrupulosity  in  eulogizing  England 
and  its  condition,  as  in  defaming  the  United  Slates.  But  i; 
was  natural  to  look  for  more  consistency  in  the  one  case  thai 
we  have  found  in  the  other.  Here  we  shall  be  disappointec 
to  an  extent  which  is  truly  marvellous,  and  which  destroys  al. 
confidence  in  any  of  the  generalities  so  profusely  sown  in  the 
pages  of  that  journal.  I  must  be  permitted  to  bring  together 
some  of  the  many  passages  establishing  the  instructive  tact. 

"  Since  man  has  ceased  to  exist  in  the  patriarchal  state, 
he  has  no  where,  nor  at  any  period,  existed  in  so  favourable  a 
condition,  as  in  England  at  the  present  time."  "  England  is 
of  all  parts  of  the  world,  the  most  prosperous  and  the  most 
happy,  blest  above  all  countries,  either  of  the  ancient  or  the 
modern  world."  (No.  31,  1817.) 

"  England  is  basking  in  the  broad  sunshine  of  peace  and 
prosperity.  England  wants  nothing  but  thankfulness;  nothing 
but  a  due  sense  of  the  mercies  which  are  heaped  upon  her 
with  an  unsparing  hand."  (No.  37,  1818.) 

u  England,  in  the  full  glory  of  arts  and  arms,  in  the  pleni 
tude  of  her  strength  and  exuberance  of  her  wealth,  in  her 
free  government  and  pure  faith,  just  laws  and  uncorrupted 
manners,  public  prosperity  and  private  happiness;  England,  in 
each  and  all  of  these  respects,  presents  an  object  not  to  be 
paralleled  in  past  ages  or  in  other  countries, — an  object  which 
fills  with  astonishment  the  understanding  mind,  and  which  the 
philosopher  and  the  Christian  may  contemplate  not  only  with 
complacency,  but  with  exultation,  with  the  deepest  gratitude 
to  the  Giver  of  all  good,  and  the  most  animating  hopes  for  the 
further  prospects  and  progress  of  mankind."  (April,  1816. y' 

"The  great  mass  of  our  population  is  in  a  state  which  renders  then 
the  easy  dupes  of  every  mischievous  demagogue."  "The  English 
are  an  uneducated  people."  (No.  31,  1816.)  "The  abuse  of  the  pres? 
is  the  curse  of  English  liberty."  (Ibid.) 

"The  London  theatres  are  disgraced  by  open  and  scandalous  immo 
jBlities."  (Ibid.) 


BRITISH    REVIEWS. 

"The  next  generation  may  see  grass  growing  in  the  now  populous  SEC. VIII. 
city  of  Nottingham,  from  the  outrages  of  the  Luddites."     (Ibid.)  V^^F-V-^^.' 

"Those  who  suffered,  for  the  agricultural  riots,  under  the  sentence 
of  the  law,  were  men  of  substance." 

"The  men  who  grow  corn  are  never  the  men  who  set  fire  to  it.  A 
large  proportion  of  the  misled  multitude,  who  have  been  burning  barns 
and  corn-stacks,  would  have  been  aiding  the  civil  power  to  repress 
these  frantic  outrages,  if  they  had  had  their  own  little  property  to 
defend  Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves !  Governments  are  safe  in  pro 
portion  as  the  great  body  of  the  people  are  contented,  and  men  cannot 
be  contented,  when  they  work  with  the  prospect  of  want  and  pauperism 
before  their  eyes,  as  tvhat  must  be  their  destiny  at  last.3'  (April,  1816  ) 

"  In  the  road  which  the  English  labourer  must  travel,  the  poor-house 
is  the  last  stage  on  the  way  to  the  grave.  Hence  it  arises,  as  a  natural 
result,  that  looking  to  the  parish  as  his  ultimate  resource,  and  as  that  to 
which  lie  must  come  at  last,  he  cares  not  how  soon  he  applies  to  it. 
There  is  neither  hope  nor  pride  to  withhold  him  :  why  should  he  deny 
himself  any  indulgence  in  youth,  or  why  make  any  efforts  to  put  off 
for  a  little  while  that  which  is  inevitable  at  the  end?  That  the  labour 
ing  poor  feel  thus,  and  reason  thus,  and  act  in  consequence,  is  beyond 
all  doubt."  (No.  29.) 

"There  can  be  no  doubt,  that  Christian  slaves  are  subject  to  much 
harsh  treatment,  and  especially  in  Algiers :  but  no  Englishman  has  been 
made  a  slave:  and  before  we  go  out  of  the  way  to  seek  for  objects  of 
misery  abroad,  it  would  be  wise  and  humane  to  relieve  those  which  we 
have  at  home.  One  would  think  that  the  general  distress  in  the  agri 
cultural  and  manufacturing  classes ;  the  state  of  the  poor — the  prisons — 
the  hospitals  and  mad  houses  ;  would  supply  us  with  abundant  objects 
to  relieve  the  plethora  of  philanthropy  with  which  we  seem  to  be 
bursting."  (Ibid.) 

"  If  adversity  be  favourable  to  the  development  of  our  virtues, 
(and  indeed  manv  of  our  noblest  qualities  would  never  be  developed 
under  any  other  discipline),  there  is  a  degree  of  misery  which  is  fatal 
to  them,  and  which  hardens  the  heart  as  much  as  manual  labour  indu 
rates  the  skin,  and  destroys  all  finer  sense  of  touch.  (Ibid.) 

"Mournful  as  this  is,  it  is  far  more  mournful  to  contemplate  the 
effects  of  extreme  poverty  in  the  midst  of  a  civilized  and  flourishing 
society.  The  wretched  native  of  Terra  del  Fuego,  or  of  the  northern 
extremity  of  America,  sees  nothing  around  him  which  aggravates  his 
own  wretchedness  by  comparison  ;  the  chief  fares  no  better  than  the 
rest  of  the  horde,  and  the  slave  no  worse  than  his  master;  the  priva 
tions  which  they  endure  arft  common  to  all ;  they  know  of  no  state 
happier  than  their  own,  and  submit  to  their  miserable  circumstances  as 
to  a  law  of  nature.  But  in  a  country  like  ours,  there  exists  a  contrast 
which  continually  forces  itself  upon  the  eye  and  upon  the  reflective 
faculty.  There  was  a  Methodist  dabbler  in  art  who,  in  the  days  of  our 
childhood,  used  to  edify  the  public  with  allegorical  prints  from  the 
great  manufactory  of  Carrington  Bowles;  one  of  these. curious  com 
positions  represented  a  human  figure,  of  which  the  right  side  was 
dressed  in  the  full  fashion  of  the  day,  while  the  left  was  undressed  to 
the  very  bones,  and  displayed  a  skeleton  The  contrast  in  this  worse 
than  Mezentian  imagination  is  not  more  frightful,  than  that  between 
health  and  squalid  pauperism,  who  are  every  clay  jostling  each  other  in 
the  street."  (Ibid.) 

"  It  is  but  too  true  we  fear,  that,  within  the  last  thirty  years,  a  con 
siderable  degradation  of  moral  character,  has  been  observable  among 
the  lower  ranks  of  society;  we  wish  we  could  say  that  it  mounted  no 
higher.  The  ostentatious  display  of  charitable  donations,  posted  in 


288 


HOSTILITIES    OP    THE 


PART  I.    front  of  the  public  newspapers,  would  seem  to  have  subdued  that  price 
V^-v~^/  and  independence  of  feeling,  which  would  once  have  shrunk  from  being 
held  up  as  the  objects  of  such  charity." 

"  The  labouring  people  of  Scotland  live  chiefly  on  potatoes  and  oat 
meal. — In  the  northern  counties  of  England,  these  furnish  theprincipd 
part  of  every  meal,  and  it  is  well  known  that  nine-tenths  of  the  popu 
lation  of  Ireland  subsist  almost  entirely  upon  them."  (No  24.) 

"  The  article  offish  is  a  luxurv  in  all  the  great  cities  and  towns    )f 

(Ibid.) 
kept  up  by  m  > 


"  The  sudden  stoppage  of  any  particular  branch  of  manufacture 
usually  sends  multitudes  to  the  poor-house."  (Ibid.) 

"  In  some  parts  of  England,  the  paupees  average  nearly  one-fourih 
of  the  population."  (Ibid.) 

"  The  recent  parliamentary  enquiry  has  shown  that  there  are  from 
120  to  130,000  children  in  the  metropolis  without  the  means  of  educa 
tion,  4,000  of  whom  are  let  out  by  their  parents  to  beggars,  or  emplo  /- 
ed  in  pilfering.  Jl  like  proportion  -would  be  foimdin  all  our  large  cities, 
and  throughout  the  manufacturing  districts  a  far  Beater."  (No.  29. ) 

"  When  we  have  stated  upon  the  authority  of  Parliament  that  the  re 
are  above  130.000  children  in  London,  who  are  at  this  time  without  the 
means  of  education,  and  that  there  are  from  three  to  four  thousand 
who  are  let  out  to  beggars  and  trained  up  in  dishonesty, — even  this  re 
presents  only  a  part  of  the  evil ,-  if  the  children  are  without  education  the 
parents  are  without  religion;  in  the  metropolis  of  this  enlightened  na 
tion,  the  church  to  which  they  should  belong  has  provided  for  them  no 
places  of  worship  ;  and  '  two-thirds  of  the  lower  order  of  people  in  Lon 
don,'  Sir  Thomas  Bernard  says,  '  live  as  utterly  ignorant  of  the  doctrines 
and  duties  of  Christianity,  and  are  as  errant  and  unconverted  pagans,  as  if 
they  had  existed  in  the  ivildest  part  of  Jifrica.'  The  case  is  the  same,  in 
Manchester,  Leeds,  Bristol,  Sheffield,  and  in  all  our  large  towns  ,•  the 
greatest  part  of  our  manufacturing  populace,  of  the  miners  and  colliers,  are 
in  the  same  condition*  and  if  they  are  not  universally  so.  it  is  more  owing 
to  the  zeal  of  the  methodists  than  to  any  other  cause."  (Ibid.) 

Most  of  the  paragraphs  just  quoted  refer  to  the  year  181G: 
and  lest  it  should  be  supposed  that  the  representation  of  this 
journal  concerning  the  state  of  English  affairs  at  home,  might 
be,  at  a  later  period,  altogether  of  an  opposite  complexion,  I 
will  moke  some  further  quotations  from  the  number  for  Sep: 
tember,  1818,  and  take  them  from  the  article  immediately 
preceding  the  one  in  which  it  is  said  that  u  England  wants  ab 
solutely  nothing  but  thankfulness." 

"  Children  are  daily  to  be  seen  in  hundreds  and  thousands  about  the 
streets  of  London,  brought  up  in  misery  and  mendicity,  first,  to  every 
kind  of  suffering,  afterwards  to  every  kind  of  guilt,  the  boys  to  theft, 
the  girls  to  prostitution,  ^nd  this  not  from  accidental  causes,  but  from 
an  obvious  defect  in  our  institutions!  Throughout  all  our  great  citi<:s, 
throughout  all  our  manufacturing  counties,  the  case  is  the  same  as  in  the  i:a* 
pital.  And  this  public  and  notorious  evil,  this  intolerable  reproach,  has 
been  going  on  year  after  year,  increasing  as  our  prosperity  has  increas 
ed,  but  in  an  accelerated  ratio.  If  this  were  regarded  by  itself  alone, 
distinct  from  all  other  evils  and  causes  of  evil,  it  might  well  excite 
shame  for  the  past,  astonishment  for  the  present,  and  apprehension  for 
the  future  ;  but  if  it  be  regarded  in  connection  with  the  increase  of 


BRITISH  REVIEWS.  289 

pauperism,  the  condition  of  the  manufacturing-  populace,  and  the  inde-  SEC.  VIII 

fatigable  zeal  with  which  the  most  pernicious  principles  of  every  kiiid  v^^_.^^^ 

are  openly  disseminated,  in  contempt  and  defiance  of  the  law  and  of  all 

things  sacred,  the  whole  would  seem  to  form  a  fnnd  of  vice,  misery, 

and  wickedness,  by  which  not  only  our  wealth,  power,  and  prosperity, 

but  all  that  constitutes  the  pride,  all  that  constitutes  the  happiness  of 

the  British  nation  is  in  danger  of  being  absorbed  and  lost." 

"  The  sternest  republican  that  ever  Scotland  produced  was  so  struck 
by  this  reflection,  that  he  did  not  hesitate  to  wish  for  the  re-establishment 
of  domestic  slavery,  as  a  remedy  for  the  squalid  wretchedness  and  auda 
cious  guilt  with  which  his  country  was  at  that  time  overrun." 

"  So  little  provision  has  been  made  for  religious  and  moral  educa 
tion  in  our  institutions,  and  so  generally  is  it  neglected  by  individuals 
as  well  as  by  the  state,  that  the  youth  in  humble  life,  who  has  been 
properly  instructed  in  his  duty  towards  God  and  man,  may  be  regarded 
as  unusually  fortunate.  The  populace  in  England  are  more  ignorant  of 
their  religious  duties  than  they  are  in  any  other  Christian  country." 

"  They  who  reflect  upon  the  course  of  society  in  this  country  cannot, 
indeed,  but  perceive  that  the  opportunities  and  temptations  to  evil 
have  greatly  increased,  while  the  old  restraints,  of  every  kind,  have  as 
generally  fallen  into  disuse.  The  stocks  are  now  as  commonly  in  a 
state  of  decay  as  the  market-cross;  and  while  the  population  has 
doubled  upon  the  church  establishment,  the  number  of  ale-houses  has  in 
creased  tenfold  in  proportion  to  the  population." 

"  What  then  are  the  causes  of  pauperism?  misfortune  in  one  instance, 
misconduct  in  fifty ;  want  of  frugality,  want  of  forethought,  want  of 
prudence,  want  of  principle ; — want  of  hope  also  should  be  added.'* 

"  To  work  a  reformation  in  the  metropolis,  indeed,  is  a  task  that 
might  dismay  Hercules  himself ;  a  huge  Augean  stable,  which  the  whole 
Thames  hath  not  water  enough  to  cleanse!  Yet  the  greater  the  evil, 
the  more  urgent  is  the  necessity  and  duty  of  setting  about  the  great 
business  of  removing  it  as  far  as  we  may.  The  points  to  be  consider 
ed  are,  in  what  manner  we  may  hope  to  effect  (.he  greatest  alleviation 
of  human  misery,  to  mitigate  the  sufferings  of  the  poor,  to  amend  their 
morals,  and  to  redress  their  wrongs.  Let  no  man  think  the  expression  is 
overcharged.  If  any  human  creatures,  born  in  the  midst  of  a  highly  civi 
lized  country,  are  yet,  by  the  circumstances  of  their  birth  and  breeding, 
placed  in  a  worse  condition  both  as  physical  and  moral  beings,  than 
they  would  have  been  had  they  been  born  among  the  savages  of  Ame 
rica  or  Australia;  the  society  in  which  they  live  has  not  done  its  duty 
towards  thena  :  they  are  ag-grieved  by  the  established  system  of  things, 
being  made  amenable  to  its  laws,  and  having  received  none  of  its  bene 
fits  ;  till  this  be  rectified,  the  scheme  of  polity  is  incomplete,  and  while 
it  exists  to  any  extent,  as  it  notoriously  does  exist  at  this  time,  in  this  coun 
try,  the  foundation  of  social  order  is  insecure." 

"  It  is  said  among  the  precious  fragments  of  king  Edward,  that  when 
prayers  had  been,  with  good  consideration  set  forth,  the  people  must 
continually  be  allured  to  hear  them  ;  instead  of  this,  a  great  proportion 
are  actually  excluded,  for  all  the  churches  in  the  metropolis,  with  all  the 
private  chapels  and  conventicles  of  every  description  added  to  them,  are  not 
•sufficient  to  accommodate  a  fourth  part  of  the  inhabitants,  upon  the  present 
system  of  conducting  public  worship." 

"  Forty  or  fifty  years  ago,  murder  was  so  rarely  committed  in  this 
country  that  any  person  who  has  amused  himself  with  looking  over  the 
magazines  or  registers  of  those  times,  might  call  to  mind  every  case 
that  occurred  during  ten  or  twenty  years,  more  easily  than  he  could  re 
collect  those  of  the  last  twelve  months;  for  scarcely  a  weekly  news 
paper  comes  from  the  press  without  its  tale  of  blood.  And  as  the  cri- 

VOL.  !.— 0  o 


290  HOSTILITIES  t)V  THE 

PART  I.  sis  becomes  more  frequent,  it  has  been  marked,  if  that  be  possibly 
^^^^^^  with  more  ferociousness,  as  if  there  were  not  only  an  increase  of  crim  - 
nals,  but  as  if  guilt  itself  was  assuming  a  more  malignant  and  devilis  i 
type." 

"  Looking,  however,  to  those  causes  which  are  within  reach  of  disc  - 
pline  and  law,  certain  it  is  that  the  increase  of  crimes  is  attributable  i\ 
no  slight  degree  to  the  abominable  state  of  our  prisons,  which,  for  the 
most  part,  have  hitherto  been  nurseries  of  licentiousness,  and  schools  of 
guilt,  rather  lhan  places  of  correction,  so  that  the  young  offender  comes 
out  of  confinement  in  erery  respect  worse  than  he  went  in." 

9.  The  two  presiding  reviews  of  Great  Britain  having  pit 
the  American  people  under  the  ban,  those  of  the  second  ran  i 
naturally  followed  so  grateful  an  example.  I  do  not  know 
whether  I  ought  to  apply  this  description  to  the  "  British  Re 
view,  or  London  Critical  Journal,"  a  quarterly  pubiicatior, 
which,  in  general,  is  marked  by  nearly  an  equal  degree  of 
learning  and  ability  with  its  predecessors.  It  maintains  the 
same  principles,  religious  and  political,  as  the  Quarterly,  and 
has,  of  course,  entered  the  lists  against  the  American  repub 
lic.  The  number  for  May,  1819,  contains  a  copious  article 
headed  "  Actual  Condition  of  the  United  States,"  and  pre 
tended  to  be  drawn  from  some  of  the  late  works  on  this  coun 
try.  I  have  only  to  cull  some  passages  from  the  article,  to 
show  what  a  rich  source  of  correct  information  and  benevo 
lent  temper  has  been  opened  to  the  British  Public,  in  the 
London  Critical  Journal. 

"  The  government  of  Washington,  identifying  extent  of 
territory  with  actual  power  and  future  greatness,  continues  to 
add  lands  to  the  immense  provinces  which  it  already  pos 
sesses;  it  eagerly  embraces  every  opportunity,  arising  from 
the  weakness  or  misfortunes  of  its  neighbours,  to  provide  fields 
for  remote  generations,  who,  it  flatters  itself,  will  one  day  out 
strip  all  other  nations  in  warlike  exploits  and  commercial 
wealth,  under  the  auspicious  stars  of  the  Union.  The  pre 
sent  rulers  of  America  appear  to  think  that  they  shall  favour 
most  successfully  the  rising  fortunes  of  their  country  by  pro- 
curing  soil  whereon  American  heroes  and  lawgivers  may 
spring  up  in  their  order  to  fulfil  their  high  destinies." 

u  In  the  United  States,  a  debt  contracted  in  one  state  can 
not  be  sued  for  in  the  next;  and  a  man  who  has  committed 
murder  in  Virginia  cannot  be  apprehended  if  he  make  his 
way  into  the  neighbouring  lands  of  Kentucky."* 

*  "  The  citizens  of  each  state  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges 
and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several  states. 

"  A  person  charged  in  any  state  with  treason,  felony,  or  other  crime, 
who  shall  flee  from  justice,  and  be  found  in  another  state,  shall,  on  the 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 

"  The  states  of  America  can  never  have  a  native  literature  SEC. 
any  more  than  they  can  have  a  native  character.     Even  their  ^* 
wildernesses  and  deserts,  their  mountains,  lakes,  and  forests, 
will  produce  nothing  romantic  or  pastoral;  no  '  native  wood- 
note  wild'  will  ever  be  heard  from  their  prairies  or  savan 
nahs;  for  these  remote  regions  are  only  relinquished  by  pagan 
savages  to  receive  into  their  deep  recesses  hordes  of  discon 
tented  democrats,  mad,  unnatural  enthusiasts,  and  needy  or 
desperate  adventurers." 

"  The  steam-boat  was  hatched  in  Great  Britain,  and  only 
acquired  some  sw«//  additional  strength  of  pinion  upon  its  mi 
gration  across  the  Atlantic." 

"  We  are  informed  that  experiments  of  sailing  ships  by 
means  of  steam  were  publicly  exhibited  on  the  Forth  and 
Clyde  canal  in  1787;  and  were  either  actually  witnessed  by 
Mr.  Fulton,  or  communicated  to  that  engineer,  who  was  then 
a  resident  in  that  part  of  Scotland,  of  which  he  was  understood 
to  be  a  native.  In  answer  to  some  enquiries  which  we  have 
made  personally  on  this  subject;  we  were  told  that  Fulton  was 
a  native  of  Paisley,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  which  place,  he 
had  steam-boats  constructed,  actually  employed  both  for  ex 
periment  and  use,  and  that  he  afterwards  carried  the  inven 
tion  to  America,"  &c. 

"  In  the  southern  parts  of  the  Union,  the  rites  of  our  holy 
faith  are  almost  never  practised." 

"  When  the  American  captains  could  not  fight  to  advan 
tage,  during  the  last  war,  they  ran  away,  and  in  some  instances 
most  shamefully.  Their  Frolic  for  instance,  after  vainly  en 
deavouring  to  escape  by  flight,  surrendered  to  the  Orpheus 
and  Shelburne  without  firing  a  single  shot."* 

"  The  Americans  may  become  a  powerful  people,  but  they 

demand  of  the  executive  authority  of  the  state  from  which  he  fled,  be 
delivered  up,  to  be  removed  to  the  state  having1  jurisdiction  of  the 
crime." — Constitution  of  the  United  States,  Article  IV.  Sect.  2. 

*  On  the  28th  of  October,  1812,  the  United  States  sloop  of  war, 
Wasp,  commanded  by  captain  Jacob  Jones,  took,  in  forty-three  mi 
nutes  after  the  first  fire,  the  British  sloop  of  war,  Frolic,  superior  in 
force  by  exactly  four  twelve-pounders.  The  gallantry  displayed  by  the 
American  ship  in  the  action,  could  not  be  exceeded,  and  she  was  much 
crippled  in  her  rigging  and  braces.  Two  hours  after  possession  was 
taken  of  the  British  vessel,  His  Majesty's  ship  Poictiers,  of  seventy-four 
guns,  fell  in  with  and  captured  them  both.  The  disabled  state  of  the 
Wasp,  and  the  disparity  of  force,  would  have  rendered  any  attempt  at 
resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Americans,  as  ridiculous  as  the  charge 
brought  against  them  by  the  British  Review.  Let  the  reader  now 
judge  of  the  candour  or  the  accuracy  of  this  high-toned  journal,  when 
it  talks  of"  their  Frolic,"  and  of  the*Orpheus  and  Shelburne,  kc 


29x2  HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 

PART  I.  want  the  elements  of  greatness;  they  may  overrun  a  portion 
*^*^^s  of  the  world,  but  they  will  never  civilize  those  whom  they 
conquer;  they  may  become  the  Goths  of  the  Western  Conti 
nent,  but  they  can  never  become  the  Greeks.  The  mass  o; 
the  North  Americans  are  too  proud  to  learn,  and  too  ignorant 
to  teach,  and  having  established  by  act  of  Congress  that  they 
are  already  the  most  enlightened  people  of  the  world,  they  bid 
fair  to  retain  their  barbarism  from  mere  regard  to  consist  - 
ency,"  &c. 

The  barkings  of  the  innumerable  minor  Reviews  and  Ma  • 
gazines  are  incessant,  and  may  be  compared  to  those  of  tin 
prairie  dog,  of  which  we  read  in  the  accounts  of  the  Missouri 
region.  They  deserve  as  little  to  be  heeded.  I  will,  how 
ever,  advert  to  one  of  them — the  British  Critic — co-ordinate 
with  the  Monthly  Review,  and  long  in  the  enjoyment  of  great 
consideration  with  the  ministerial  and  high-church  party.  It 
has  recently  had  a  paroxysm  of  exprobration,  on  the  occasion 
of  reviewing  Mr.  Bristed's  "  Resources  of  America."  Thi5 
gentleman,  a  Briton  by  birth,  educated  at  home,  it  has,  likr 
the  London  Critical  Journal,  mistaken,  or  affected  to  mistake , 
for  an  American,  and  in  reviling  the  diction  of  his  book, 
has  held  him  forth  as  a  sample  of  American  writers.  If  at 
author  so  affectionately  and  reverentially  disposed  toward*- 
England,  fared  so  ill,  for  allowing  some  virtue  and  prosperity 
to  the  United  States,  these  unlucky  States  had  nothing  less  tc 
expect  than  a  merciless  visitation.  I  would  not  undertake  tc 
repeat  any  part  of  the  pasquinades  of  the  critique,  were  it  not 
that  they  form  a  proper  sequel  to  those  of  the  Quarterly  Re 
view,  and  complete  the  idea  to  be  entertained  of  the  strain  ir. 
which  we  are  celebrated  in  the  British  journals  generally 
The  following  extracts  will  suffice. 

"J%  "  The  Americans  debated  in  Congress,  during  three  suc 
cessive  days,  whether  they  were  not  the  greatest,  the  wisest 
bravest,  most  ingenious,  and  most  learned  of  mankind." 

"  The  North  American  republicans  are  the  most  vain, 
egotistical,  insolent,  rodomontade  sort  of  people  that  are  an} 
where  to  be  found.  They  give  themselves  airs." 

"  The  Americans  have  no  history;  nothing  on  which  to  ex 
ercise  genius  and  kindle  imagination." 

41  One  third  of  the  people  have  no  church  at  all.  Threr 
and  an  half  millions  enjoy  no  means  of  religious  instruction 
The  religious  principle  is  gaining  ground  in  the  northern  part? 
of  the  Union:  it  is  becoming  fashionable  among  the  better  or 
ders  of  society  to  go  to  church." 

"  The  greater  number  of  states  declare  it  to  be  unconstitu 


BRITISH  REVIEWS.  293 

tional  to  refer  to  the  providence  of  God  in  any  of  their  public  SEC.  vm. 
acts." 

"  The  Americans  make  it  a  point  of  conscience  never  to 
pay  a  single  stiver  to  a  British  creditor." 

"  America  is  like  a  dissipated  boy,  combining  the  feeble 
ness  of  early  youth,  with  the  libertinism  of  manhood;  the  cal 
culating  selfishness  of  declining  years,  with  the  decrepitude 
and  disease  of  old  age." 

"  America  is  easy  to  conquer,  but  difficult  to  keep,"  &c.  &c.  * 

Ribaldry  of  this  description,  which,  by  its  absurdness, 
softens  the  indignation  it  is  fitted  to  excite,  can  require 
no  annotation.  But  I  think  it  well  to  examine;  at  once  the 
topic  of  the  first  paragraph,  quoted  from  the  British  criuc, 
— one  which  has  now  the  additional  disrelish  of  triteness,  in 
any  English  publication;  so  often  has  it  exercised  the  wit,  or 
provoked  the  spleen,  of  parliamentary  orators,  and  periodical 
censors.  We  have  seen  that  the  Edinburgh  Review  talks  of 
"  the  ludicrous  proposition  of  the  American  Congress  to  de 
clare  herself  the  most  enlightened  nation  on  the  globe."  The 
Quarterly  Review  also,  in  the  critique  of  Inchiquin's  letters, 
descants  scoffingly  on  this  supposed  proposition,  and  avers 
that  it  was  withdrawn  "  only  through  fear  of  giving  umbrage 
to  the  French  Convention."  Mr.  Alexander  Baring  refers  to  it, 
in  his  pamphlet  on  the  Orders  in  Council,  saying,  that  "the 
Americans  gravely  debated  once  in  Congress,  whether  they 
should  style  themselves  the  most  enlightened  people  in  the 
world;"  but  he  tempers  the  pungency  of  the  allusion,  by  re 
lating  how  a  distinguished  member  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
Mr.  Wilberforce,  seriously  declared  in  his  place,  and  was  no 
doubt  as  seriously  believed,  "  that  Great  Britain  was  too  ho 
nest  to  have  any  political  connexions  with  the  continent  of 
Europe."  By  a  natural  progression,  or  diversity  of  reading,  the 
story  now  goes,  as  the  British  critic  has  it — "  that  the  Ame 
ricans  debated  during  three  successive  days,  whether  they 
were  not  the  greatest,  wisest,  bravest,  most  ingenious,  and  most 
learned  of  mankind!"  This  is  the  shape  in  which  it  will, 
doubtless,  be  embalmed  by  the  British  historians. 

Let  us  attend  now  to  the  facts  of  the  case,  as  they  are  ap 
parent  upon  the  face  of  the  printed  debate,  and  remain  noto 
rious  to  all  who  followed  the  course  of  our  public  affairs  at 
the  time. 

The  French  revolution  had  divided  the  American  people 
into  two  great  parties;  the  one  disposed  for  an  intimate  alli 
ance  with  France;  the  other  averse  from  any  connexion  with 
the  new  republic,  and  more  amicably  affected  to  Great  Britain 


294 


HOSTILITIES  OP  THE 


PART  I.  General  Washington,  by  adopting  and  maintaining  the  policy 
^-^v-^'  of  neutrality  between  the  belligerent  powers  of  Europe,  and 
by  giving  his  countenance  and  official  sanction  to  Jay's  treaty, 
so  called,  of  1795,  with  Great  Britain,  had  rendered  himself 
obnoxious  to  the  leaders  of  that  division  of  our  politicians  who 
favoured  her  enemy,  and  would  have  renounced  her  trad-3. 
Their  antagonists  in  Congress  were  fortified  in  their  dislike 
and  dread  of  the  French  republic,  and  their  predilection  for 
the  most  friendly  political  intercourse  and  free  commercial 
relations,  with  Great  Britain,  by  the  ill-judged  machinations 
and  intemperate  language  of  the  French  representatives  in 
this  country,  and  the  open  support  which  the  French  govern 
ment  lent  to  the  most  insulting  trespasses  upon  our  national 
sovereignty. 

General  Washington  having  announced  his  resolution  to 
retire  into  private  life,  an  election  for  a  successor  to  the  chief 
magistracy  look  place  in  1796,  and  gave  new  animation  to  the 
feelings  and  plans  just  mentioned.  At  the  close  of  the  yeer, 
while  this  election  was  raging^  if  I  may  be  allowed  the  term, 
Washington  delivered  his  farewell  address  to  the  federal  legis 
lature,  and  in  the  house  of  representatives  a  committee  compos 
ed  of  five  members,  three  of  whom  were  friends  of  his  adminis 
tration,  was  appointed  to  prepare  an  answer  to  his  speech.  The 
draught  of  an  answer  which  this  committee  reported,  contained 
the  following  paragraph.  "  The  spectacle  of  a  whole  nation,  the 
freest  and  most  enlightened  in  the  world,  offering,  by  its  repre 
sentatives,  the  tribute  of  unfeigned  approbation  to  its  first  citi 
zen,  however  novel  and  interesting  it  may  be,  derives  its  lus 
tre  from  the  transcendant  merit  of  which,"  &c.  The  phrase 
which  I  have  put  in  italics  found  its  way  into  the  draught,  from 
the  desire  of  the  committee  to  place  Washington  at  the  highest 
elevation  possible,  in  opposition  to  the  designs  of  some  zealots 
of  party  in  Congress,  who  aimed  at  diminishing  the  lustre  of 
his  personal  reputation,  and  the  credit  of  his  system  of  politics. 
Moreover,  France  had  not  long  before  asserted  for  herself  the 
pre-eminence  over  all  nations  in  freedom  and  political  intelli 
gence;  and  the  authors  of  the  draught,  with  those  of  the  same 
side  in  Congress,  were  eager  to  countervail  this,  as  well  as 
every  other  overweening  pretension,  which  might  enhance  her 
influence  in  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Sitgreaves,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  members  of 
the  anti-gallican  party,  explained  to  the  house  that  "  the  light 
spoken  of  was  political  light,  and  had  no  reference  to  ai\s. 
science,  or  literature;  that  it  was  intended  to  make  the  com 
pliment  stronger  to  General  Washington,  and  was  to  be  re- 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 


295 


yarded  as  a  matter  entirely  domestic,  and  not  as  a  public  act  SEC.  VIII. 
for  foreign  nations."' 

The  answer  at  large  brought  into  view  the  main  political 
questions  which  agitated  the  country,  and  expressed  an  un 
qualified  approval  of  Washington's  official  career.  A  debate 
arose  upon  the  general  strain  of  it,  which  lasted  two  days.  It 
turned  chiefly  upon  the  point  of  u  the  wisdom  and  firmness" 
of  his  administration,  in  reference  to  England  and  France, 
and  embraced  the  investigation  of  all  our  relations  with  the 
latter  power.  Objection  had  been  immediately  made  to  the 
phrase  which  has  furnished  so  much  sport  to  the  British  wits, 
not  only  by  the  opposition,  but  by  several  of  the  most  decided 
federal  members.  One  of  these,  Mr.  Thatcher,  finding  that 
it  interfered  with  the  principal  purpose  of  obtaining  an  ap 
pearance  of  unanimity  in  the  homage  to  Washington  and  his 
course  of  policy,  moved,  at  length,  after  it  had  been  discussed 
with  some  copiousness,  though  incidentally,  that  the  words 
"  spectacle  of  a  whole  nation  the  freest  and  most  enlightened," 
should  be  amended  so  as  to  read  "the  spectacle  of  a  free  and 
enlightened  nation," — which  ivas  carried  without  a  division. 
In  the  course  of  the  debate,  a  suggestion  was,  indeed,  made, 
in  the  way  of  exception,  that  the  use  of  the  superlative  would 
give  umbrage  to  France;  but  this  consideration  must  have 
proved  the  reverse  of  dissuasive  for  the  majority,  in  the  state 
of  their  feelings  towards  that  power,  with  whom  they  so  soon 
afterwards  came  to  open  war.  They  concurred  in  the  amend 
ment  with  such  readiness,  from  the  two-fold  motive  of  facili 
tating  the  adoption  of  the  material  parts  of  the  answer,  and 
avoiding  what  might  have  the  air  of  national  arrogance. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  famed  "proposition  of  congress  to  de 
clare  America  the  freest  and  most  enlightened  nation  on  the 
globe," — the  "  act  of  congress  by  which  the  Americans  esta 
blished  that  they  are  the  most  enlightened  people  of  the  world," 
— was  no  more  than  an  occasional  phrase,  hazarded  by  a  com 
mittee  in  the  draught  of  a  domestic  paper,  for  purposes  dis 
tinct  from  that  of  glorifying  the  nation;  which  phrase,  though 
equally  suited  to  favourite  aims  of  the  majority  of  congress, 
was  disavowed  and  rejected  by  that  majority,  chiefly  because 
it  savoured  of  presumption,  and  seemed  to  infringe  upon  strict 
national  decorum.  The  transaction  argues,  on  the  whole,  in 
the  congress,  sentiments  opposite  to  those  which  it  has  fur 
nished  the  English  writers  occasion  to  impute;  and,  when  we 
advert  to  the  nature  of  the  dispositions  towards  England, 
which  were  mingled  with  its  origin,  we  must  find  their  re 
presentations  still  more  ungracious  and  illiberal.  An  instance 


HOSTILITIES  OP  THE 

PART  I.  of  the  same  scrupulousness  is  certainly  not  to  be  found  in  th  3 
annals  of  the  British  parliament.  I  refer  to  the  answers  cf 
that  body  to  the  speeches  from  the  throne,  and  to  the  votes 
of  thanks  as  presented  by  the  speaker, — particularly  the  last, 
Mr.  Abbot, — to  the  public  servants  whom  it  has  distinguished, 
for  self-applause  and  claims  of  national  superiority,  beyon  1 
which,  no  intoxication  of  pride,  or  reason  of  state  can  ever,  i.i 
the  civilized  world,  carry  national  pretensions.  This  refer 
ence  from  an  American  will,  perhaps,  be  thought  a  very  defi 
cient  measure  of  recrimination;  but  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mine, 
that,  however  transcendant  may  be  the  British  nation,  in  ail 
respects,  in  the  comparison  with  her  "  kinsmen  of  the  west, ' 
her  pre-eminence,  in  valour  and  science  at  least,  over  the 
other  nations  of  Europe,  is  not  so  far  incontrovertible  and  no 
torious,  as  that,  while  constantly  asserting  it  herself,  she  can, 
without  inconsistency  or  assurance,  make  a  standing  jest  (<f 
the  single  example  of  exaltedness  which  she  charges  upon  the 
American  congress. 

The  obnoxious  phrase  in  the  draught  of  the  American  com 
mittee  was,  in  fact,  warrantable  in  itself,  and  might  have  been 
adopted,  as  it  was  meant,  with  perfect  propriety.  The  com 
mittee  had  in  view  civil  and  religious  freedom  combined,  and 
the  diffusiveness  of  political  light,  and  elementary  knowledge 
— points  in  which  I  think  it  hardly  possible  to  contest  the  su 
premacy  of  the  United  States.  For  proclaiming  this  supre 
macy,  there  were  strong  motives  derived  from  the  peculiar 
situation  of  the  country  in  regard  to  France,  at  the  juncture. 
The  confidence  of  a  part  of  the  American  people  in  their  own 
institutions  and  political  wisdom,  seemed  to  be  shaken  in  some 
degree  by  the  pretensions  of  French  democracy,  and  to  stand 
in  need  of  such  confirmation  as  the  body  of  their  representa 
tives  could  furnish,  for  their  protection  against  the  most  mis 
chievous  delusions. 

Although  I  may  appear  to  have  allotted  already  too  much 
space  to  this  topic,  I  must  claim  permission  to  introduce  the 
observations  which  were  made  by  Fisher  Ames,  in  congress, 
on  the  occasion.  They  belong,  in  strictness,  to  its  history. 

Mr.  Ames  said — "If  a  man  were  to  call  himself  more  free 
and  enlightened  than  his  fellows,  it  would  be  considered  as 
arrogant  self-praise.  His  very  declaration  would  prove  that 
he  wanted  sense  as  well  as  modesty;  but  a  nation  might  be 
called  so  by  a  citizen  of  that  nation,  without  impropriety,  be 
cause  in  doing  so,  he  bestows  no  praise  of  superiority  on  him 
self;  he  may  be  in  fact,  sensible  that  he  is  less  enlightened 
than  (he  wise  of  other  nations.  This  sort  of  national  eulogium 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 

may,  no  doubt,  be  fostered  by  vanity  and  grounded  in  mistake:  SEC. 
it  is  sometimes  just;  it  is  certainly  common,  and  not  always  ^-^^ 
either  ridiculous  or  offensive.  It  did  not  say  that  either  France 
or  England  had  not  been  remarkable  for  enlightened  men; 
their  literati  are  more  numerous  and  distinguished  than  our 
own. 

"  The  general  character  with  respect  to  this  country,  was 
strictly  true.  Our  countrymen,  almost  universally,  possess 
some  property  and  some  portion  of  learning, — two  distinctions 
so  remarkably  in  their  favour  as  to  vindicate  the  expression 
objected  to.  But  go  through  France,  Germany,  and  most 
countries  of  Europe,  and  it  would  be  found  that  out  of  fifty 
millions  of  people,  not  more  than  two  or  three  had  any  pre 
tensions  to  knowledge,  the  rest  being,  comparatively  with 
Americans,  ignorant.  In  France,  which  contains  twenty-five 
millions  of  people,  only  one  was  calculated  to  be  in  any  re 
spect  enlightened,  and  perhaps  under  the  old  system  there 
was  not  a  greater  proportion  possessed  of  property;  whilst  in 
America,  out  of  four  millions  of  people,  scarcely  any  part  of 
them  could  be  placed  upon  the  same  ground  with  the  rabble 
of  Europe. 

"  That  class  called  vulgar,  canaille,  rabble,  so  numerous 
there,  does  not  exist  here  as  a  class,  though  our  towns  have 
individuals  of  it.  Look  at  the  Lazzaroni  of  Naples:  there  arc 
20,000  or  more  houseless  people,  wretched  and  in  want!  He 
asked  whether  where  men  wanted  every  thing,  and  were  in 
the  proportion  of  twenty-nine  to  one,  it  was  possible  that  they 
could  be  trusted  with  power?  Wanting  wisdom  and  morals, 
how  could  they  use  it?  It  was  therefore  that  the  iron  hand  of 
despotism  was  called  in  by  the  few  who  had  any  thing,  to 
preserve  any  kind  of  controul  over  the  many.  This  evil,  as  it 
truly  was,  rendered  real  liberty  hopeless. 

u  In  America,  out  of  four  millions  of  people,  the  proportion  of 
those  who  cannot  read  and  write,  and  who,  having  nothing,  arc 
interested  in  plunder  and  confusion,  and  disposed  for  both,  is 
exceedingly  small.  In  the  southern  states  he  knew  there  were 
people  well  informed;  he  disclaimed  all  design  of  invidious 
comparison;  the  members  from  the  south  would  be  more  capa 
ble  of  doing  justice  to  their  constituents;  but,  in  the  eastern 
states,  he  was  more  particularly  conversant,  and  knew  the 
people  in  them  could  universally  read  and  write,  and  were 
well  informed  as  to  public  affairs.  In  such  a  country,  liberty 
is  likely  to  be  permanent.  It  is  possible  to  plant  it  in  such  a 
soil,  and  reasonable  to  hope,  that  it  will  take  root  and  flourish 

VOL.  I.— Pp 


297 


298 


HOSTILITIES  OP  THE 


PARTI,  long,  as  we  see  it  does.     But  can  liberty  such  as  we  under 
^^v"*w  stand  and  enjoy,  exist  in  societies  where  the  few  only  have 
property,  and  the  many  are  both  ignorant  and  licentious? 

-Was  there  any  impropriety,  then,  in  saying  what  was  a 
fact?  As  it  regards  government,  the  declaration  is  useful.  It 
is  respectful  to  the  people  to  speak  of  them  with  the  justice 
due  to  them,  as  eminently  formed  for  liberty  and  worthy  t  i 
it.  If  they  are  free  and  enlightened,  let  us  say  so.  Congress 
ought  not  only  to  say  this  because  it  was  true,  but  because 
their  saying  so  would  have  the  effect  to  produce  that  self-re 
spect  which  was  the  best  guard  of  liberty;  and  most  condt* 
cive  to  the  happiness  of  society.  It  was  useful  to  show  when 
our  hopes  and  the  true  safety  of  our  freedom  are  reposed.  ;t 
procured  in  return  from  the  citizens  a  just  confidence;  it  che 
rished  a  spirit  of  patriotism  unmixed  with  foreign  alloy,  and 
the  courage  to  defend  a  constitution  which  a  people  really  er  - 
lightened  knows  to  be  worthy  of  its  efforts." 

The  American  Congress  has  had  its  full  share  of  maternal 
abuse.  It  has  been  visited  with  the  wrath  and  the  pleasantry 
of  the  British  writers,  on  other  grounds  than  the  one  of  which 
I  have  just  treated.  With  the  Fullers  and  the  Lord  Coelj- 
ranes  before  their  eyes,  with  the  Wilkes  and  the  Gordons  fresi* 
in  their  recollection,  they  have  yet  been  bold  enough  to  single, 
for  the  purpose  of  general  detraction,  out  of  our  legislative  an 
nals,  instances  of  disorderly  deportment  in  individuals.  That 
of  Mathew  Lyon  and  Roger  Griswold,  the  only  flagrant  case, 
is  vamped  up  in  all  the  reviews  and  books  of  travels,  as  if 
personal  violence  were  a  new  species  of  irregularity  in  the 
history  of  legislative  assemblies;  and  as  if  the  British  parti 
cularly  furnished  no  case  of  the  kind  for  admonishment.  But 
we  have  only  to  open  the  parliamentary  annals,  to  find  pre 
cedents  of  an  early  date,  which  might  have  sufficed  for  all 
purposes.  Take,  for  example,  the  rencontre  narrated  in  the 
following  extract  from  the  history  of  the  House  of  Commons 
of  the  year  1678,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  11. 

"  Debate  on  Sir  J.  Trelawney's  calling  Mr.  Ash  a  rascal.  "" 
Sir  J.  Trelawney  said — "  I  rise  up  the  earlier  to  speak,  be 
cause  I  wish  this  had  been  in  another  place:  but  perhaps  in  a 
more  sacred  place  than  this*  if  any  man  should  call  me  rascaL 

*  The  Quarterly  Review  is  (maugre  the  example  of  Sir  J.  Trelawney) 
greatly  scandalized  at  the  story  related  by  Birbeck,  of  a  citizen  of  the 
state  of  Indiana  having1  declared  before  a  spiritual  tribunal,  that  he 
should  not  wish  to  live  longer  than  he  had  the  right  to  knock  down  ths 
man  who  told  him  he  lied. 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 

J  should  call  him  rebel,  and  give  him  a  box  on  the  ear.    The  SEC.  VIII. 
cause  of  the  quarrel  that  happened  was  this.     Colonel  Birch  V^-VN^ 
was  saying — lose   (his  question,  and  he  would  vote  for  a  ge 
neral  toleration.     No,  said  I,  I  never  was  for  that.     And  Ash 
said — I  am  not  for  popery: — said  I — nor  I  for  presbytery.     I 
came  to  Ash  and  told  him  he  must  explain  his  words.     Said 
Ash,  I  am  no  more  a  presbyterian  than  you  are  a  papist. 
Upon  which  I  said,  Ash  was  a  rascal,  and  I  struck  him,  and 
1  should  have  done  it  any  where." 

Sir  Wm.  Harbord  said — "  Sir  John  Trelawney  has  behav 
ed  himself  like  a  man  of  honour."  Sir  John  was  only  slightly 
reprimanded  by  the  speaker. 

The  nature  of  this  proceeding  and  the  general  spirit  which 
gave  rise  to  it,  and  made  the  punishment  so  light,  is  as  little 
creditable,  as  the  affair  of  Mathew  Lyon,  who  was,  be  it  re 
membered,  spurned  by  the  whole  American  Congress.  And 
it  is  quite  as  fair  in  me  to  go  back  to  the  case  of  Trelawney, 
as  it  is  in  an  English  writer  to  recur  to  that  of  Lyon.  Our 
party-heats  at  the  period  when  this  happened,  were  also  ex 
treme,  although  not  indeed  fed  by  religious  bigotry. 

If,  however,  a  recent  case  is  wanted,  it  can  be  furnished 
without  difficulty.  It  is  from  the  applauded  Travels  of  Simon, 
in  England,  of  1809,  that  I  extract  the  following  history: 

"  The  House  of  Commons  has  exhibited  lately  a  very  cu 
rious  tragi-comic  scene.  An  honourable  member,  a  country 
gentleman,  and,  I  believe,  a  county  member,  took  offence  at 
some  slight  he  had  experienced  during  the  late  examination 
in  Parliament;  and  having  made  some  intemperate  remarks, 
supported  by  oaths,  there  was  a  motion,  that  the  words  of  the 
honourable  member  should  be  taken  down.  ThU  produced 
another  explosion  from  the  honourable  member,  who  was  or 
dered  by  the  Speaker  to  leave  the  house,  which  he  obeyed 
with  some  difficulty.  The  House  then  decided  that  he  should 
be  put  into  the  custody  of  the  sergeant-at-arms.  This  reso 
lution  was  no  sooner  announced  to  him,  than  he  burst  in 
again,  furiously  calling  to  the  Speaker  that  he  had  no  right  to 
send  him  into  confinement;  and  that  the  little  fellow  in  the 
great  wig  was  the  servant,  and  not  the  master  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  The  Speaker,  in  consequence  of  the  vote  of  im 
prisonment,  was  obliged  to  order  the  sergeant-at-arms  to  do 
his  duty;  and  the  latter,  with  the  assistance  of  some  other 
officers,  succeeded  in  carrying  off  his  prisoner  after  an  obsti 
nate  combat, — the  honourable  member  being  an  Hercules! 
What  would  the  Parisians  say  to  an  affair  like  this  in  their 


300 


HOSTILITIES  OF  THE 


PARTI.   Senat  Conservatif,  and  one  of  the  members  in  grand  costume, 
<^~v***-s  giving  battle  to  the  door  keeper  on  the  senatorial  floor?"* 

Lyon,  the  aggressor  in  the  affair  of  the  American  House  cf 
Representatives,  was  not  an  American,  and  it  is  .probable  that 
those  who  sent  him  to  the  American  legislature  were  chiefly 
foreigners.  The  right  of  suffrage  in  the  United  States  is  sub 
ject  to  few  restrictions;  it  is  acquired,  after  a  few  years'  resi 
dence,  without  much  difficulty,  by  Europeans  of  every  order. 
It  would  not,  therefore,  be  matter  of  surprise,  if  men  of  vulge  r 
manners  and  unruly  spirit — strangers,  with  the  slough  of  the  r 
native  grossness  and  virulence,  were  occasionally  found  in  01  r 
Congress.  Besides,  the  American  representatives  belong  to 
professions,  and  circles  of  society,  in  which  the  more  elaborai  e 
and  delicate  courtesies  cannot  be  supposed  to  be  practised, 
nor  self-controul  to  be  acquired  in  the  same  extent  as  in  what 
is  called  the  fashionable  and  polished  company  of  the  British 
islands,  where  the  legislators  are  boastfully  said,  to  be  trained 
to  habitual  politeness,  under  a  discipline  suited  to  their  her*  - 
ditary  gentility  and  affluence.  Yet,  it  has  so  happened,  that  in 
stances  of  members  such  as  I  have  described  above,  are  rare  in 
the  annals  of  Congress;  and  that  as  much  decorumhas  prevailed 
in  that  body  at  all  times,  as  in  any  similar  institute  of  modem 
days.  Since  the  era  of  our  federal  assemblies,  the  British 
parliament  has  exhibited  more  scenes  of  turbulence  and  inde 
cency;  a  strain  of  personal  reflection  has  been  immemorially 
indulged  in  it,  which  would  not  be  borne  in  the  former.  Mr. 
Canning  complains,  in  one  of  his  late  speeches,  of  u  the  prac 
tice  in  the  House  of  Commons,  of  calumniating  public  men 
on  either  side  of  the  house,  by  imputing  to  them  motives  of 
action,  the  insinuation  of  which  would  not  be  tolerated  in  the 
intercourse  of  private  life."  This  gentleman  allowed  him 
self,  on  the  floor,  to  stigmatize  Mr.  Lambton,  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  orators  of  the  opposition,  as  "  a  dolt  and  an 
ideot."  In  Feb.  1817,  Mr.  Bennet  exclaimed,  in  his  place, 
against  "  such  ministers  as  the  noble  lord,  Castlereagh,  who 
had  already  imbrued  their  hands  in  the  blood  of  their  coun 
try,  and  been  guilty  of  the  most  criminal  cruelties."  Lord 
Castlereagh  replied  by  giving  the  lie  direct  to  his  accuser.  Up 
on  another  occasion  in  the  same  year,  when  vilified  by  Mr. 
Brougham,  the  noble  lord  described  the  speech  of  the  honour- 
able  and  learned  gentleman  as  "  a  strain  of  black,  malignant, 
and  libellous  insinuation."  In  reading  the  invectives  of  Mr. 
Tierney,  and  the  bitter  taunts  of  Mr.  Canning,  we  feel  a  two- 

*  Vol.  I.  p.  63. 


BRITISH  REVIEWS.  301 

told  wonder — at  the  licentiousness  of  the  parliamentary  tongue,  SEC.  Tin. 
and  at  the  impunity  with  which  such  cruel  insults  are  oSer-  ^^v^^' 
ed  on  so  conspicuous  a  theatre.* 

The  general  style  of  altercation  in  both  houses  of  Parliament 
during  the  American  war,  and  at  some  periods  of  the  admi 
nistration  of  the  younger  Pitt,  has  never,  I  am  sure,  been 
equalled  in  the  American  congress  at  any  stage  of  our  party 
irritations.  If  I  open  the  volumes  of  parliamentary  debates, 
i  fall  at  once  upon  such  specimens  of  senatorial  temperance 
as  the  following: 

"Lord  Mansfield  rose  in  great  passion, — he  charged  the 
last  noble  lord,  (Earl  of  Shelburne,)  with  uttering  gross  false 
hoods." — Almond's  Parliament ary  Debates,  Feb.  7f/i,  1775. 

"The  Earl  of  Shelburne  returned  the  charge  of  falsehood 
to  Lor  J  Mansfield  in  direct  terms," — Ibid. 

"The  Duke  of  Richmond  animadverted  in  very  severe 
terms,  on  an  expression  which  fell  in  the  heat  of  debate  from 
a  noble  lord  (Lord  Lyttleton).  He  said  no  man  could  impute 
littleness,  lowness,  or  cunning  to  any  member  of  that  assembly 
(alluding  to  what  his  lordship  had  pointed  at  Lord  Camden) 
for  delivering  his  sentiments  freely,  unless  he  drew  the  picture 
from  something  he  felt  within  himself,  as  by  illiberally  charg 
ing  others  with  low  and  sinister  designs,  the  charge  could  only 
properly  be  applied  to  the  person  from  whom  it  originated.^ 
— Ibid. 


*  The  following,  of  so  late  a  date  as  June  7th,  1819,  is  a  fair  speci 
men. 

"  Mr.  Canning  said :  The  shuffling,  otnoartffy,  and  evasive  course  recom 
mended  by  the  right  honourable  gentleman,  Mr.  Tierney,  showed  what 
was  his  real  object,  &c. 

"  Mr.  Calcraft  here  rose  to  order.  He  could  not  listen  in  silence  to  the 
foul,  offensive,  and  almost  unparliamentary  aspersions  which  the  right  ho 
nourable  gentleman  had  passed  on  his  right  honourable  friend,  on  him 
self,  and  on  all  his  friends  around  him,  &c. 

"  Mr.  Canning  here  interrupted  the  honourable  gentleman.  He 
thought  that  in  debate  there  was  tolerably  fair  room  to  give  and  to  take  ,• 
and  whenever  the  terms  'indecent' and  'atrocious,'  which  had  been 
applied  to  the  proposal  of  ministers  were  retracted,  then,  and  not  till 
then,  should  he  retract  the  epithets  which  he  had  applied  to  the  con 
duct  of  the  gentleman  opposite. 

"Mr.  Calcraft  rejoined.  Cowardly,  erasive,  and  shuffling!  from  a 
man  too,  who  when  he  looked  on  one  side  on  the  honourable  friends 
whom  he  had  betrayed,  and  at  the  other  side  on  the  honourable  friends 
whom  he  had  lampooned,  but  with  both  of  whom  he  was  now  united  in 
place,  might  reflect,  perhaps,  on  a  more  exact  illustration  of  such  qua 
lities.  (Hear,  hear,  hear.)" 


302  HOSTILITIES  OP  THE 

PART  r.       Mr.  Edmund  Burke  said:— 

"  Sir,  the  noble  lord  who  spoke  last  (Lord  North)  af'tei 
extending  his  right  leg  a  full  yard  before  his  left,  rolling  1m 
flaming  eyes,  and  moving  his  ponderous  frame,  has  at  length 
opened  his  mouth.  I  was  all  attention.  After  these  portents 
I  expected  something  still  more  awful  and  tremendous:  I  ex 
pected  that  the  Tower  would  have  been  threatened  in  articu 
lated  thunder;  but  I  have  heard  only  a  feeble  remonstrance 
against  violence  and  passion:  when  I  expected  the  powers  of 
destruction  to  cry  havoc,  and  let  slip  the  dogs  of  war,  an  over 
blown  bladder  has  burst,  and  nobody  has  been  hurt  by  the 
crack."—  CobbetPs  Debates,  1770. 

In  one  particular  form  of  indecorum,  I  might  almost  call  il 
enormity,  the  British  parliament  has  gone  far  beyond  what  is 
known  to  our  experience  in  America.  I  refer  to  the  jocularity 
indulged  on  occasions  the  most  pathetic  in  the  facts,  or  the 
most  solemn  in  the  consequences  for  the  interests  and  honoui 
of  the  nation. 

During  the  debates  on  the  slave  trade  in  the  years  1791 
and  1792,  when  disclosures  were  made  of  crimes  commit 
ted  by  British  captains  in  that  trade,  so  dreadfully  atro 
cious,  that  even  now  they  wring  the  heart,  and  overpower  the 
imagination  of  a  cursory  reader,  laughter  resounded  from 
time  to  time  in  the  House  of  Commons;  and  that  body  listen 
ed  complacently  to  a  speech,  from  Lord  Carhampton,  to  which 
nothing  can  be  compared,  considering  the  occasion  and  sub 
ject,  except,  perhaps,  the  show  of  dancing- dogs  under  the 
guillotine  at  Paris,  so  eloquently  stigmatized  by  Burke.  I 
will  take,  from  the  debate  of  1791,  a  more  particular  exam 
ple  of  this  almost  incredible  levity  which  has  distinguished 
the  British  parliament. 

"Mr.  William  Smith  related  the  following  anecdote  upon  the  authority 
of  eye  witnesses.  *  A  child  of  about  ten  months  old  took  sick  on  board 
of  a  British  slave-ship,  and  would  not  eat.  The  captain  took  up  the 
child,  and  flogged  him  with  a  cat ;  'D — n  you,'  said  he,  'I'll  make  you 
eat,  or  I'll  kill  you.'  From  this,  and  other  ill  treatment,  the  child's 
legs  swelled,  and  the  captain  ordered  some  water  to  be  made  hot  for 
abating  the  swelling.  But  even  his  tender  mercies  were  cruel ;  for  the 
cook  putting  his  hand  into  the  water,  said  it  was  too  hot.  '  D — n  him,' 
said  the  captain,  *  put  his  feet  in.'  The  child  was  put  into  the  water, 
and  the  nails  and  skin  came  all  off  his  feet.  Oiled  cloths  were  then  put 
round  them.  The  child  was  then  tied  to  a  heavy  log,  and  two  or  three 
days  afterwards  the  captain  caught  it  up  again  and  said,  'I  will  make 
you  eat,  or  I  will  be  the  death  of  you.'  He  immediately  flogged  the 
child  again ;  and,  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  it  died.'  One  would  imagine, 
that  the  most  savage  cruelty  would  here  have  been  satiated;  but,  ex 
traordinary  as  it  might  appear,  of  this  detestable  transaction,  the  most 
detestable  part  yet  remained.  After  the  infant  was  dead,  he  would  not 


BRITISH  REVIEWS. 


303 


suffer  any  of  the  people  on  deck  to  throw  the  body  over,  but  called  the  SEC.  VIII. 
wretched  mother,  to  perform  this  last  sad  office  to  her  murdered  child.  \^-v~w/ 
Unwilling1  as  it  might  naturally  be  supposed  she  was  to  comply,  he 
beat  her  till  he  made  her  take  up  the  child  and  carry  it  to  the  side  of 
the  vessel,  and  then  she  dropped  it  into  the  sea,  turning  her  head  the 
other  way,  that  she  might  not  see  it !"  Mr.  Smith  asked  the  committee 
of  the  House  if  ever  they  had  heard  of  such  a  deed,  on  -which  some  of 
the  inconsiderate  laughed,  and  on  hearing  it,  he  declared  with  great  in 
dignation,  that  he  should  not  have  thought  it  possible  for  any  one  man 
jn  that  committee  to  have  betrayed  such  a  total  want  of  feeling,  and 
that  he  -was  almost  ashamed  of  being  a  member  of  the  assembly,  in  which  so 
disgraceful  a  circumstance  had  happened." 

We  were  told  by  Sir  S.  Romilly  (March  llth,  1818)  that, 
"  in  the  violence  of  party,  cruelties  which  could  not  be  heard 
without  shuddering,  had  been  treated  in  a  British  House  of 
Commons  with  such  levity,  that  it  had  been  facetiously  said, 
that  the  outcry  which  had  been  raised,  was  only  for  a  Catho 
lic's  having  got  a  sore  back." 

When  the  question  of  abolishing  the  use  of  climbing  boys 
in  the  sweeping  of  chimneys  (the  white  negro  slaves  of  England, 
as  they  are  called  by  the  Quarterly  Review)  was  brought  be 
fore  the  House  of  Lords  in  the  present  year,  (1819,)  accom 
panied  with  harrowing  details  of  cruelty  and  suffering,  Lord 
Lauderdale,  who  opposed  the  bill  for  their  relief,  got  into 
a  facetious  mood,  and  put  his  brother  peers  in  the  same,  by 
the  following,  among  other  appropriate  and  refined  anecdotes: 
"  In  some  parts  of  Ireland,"  the  noble  lord  said,  "  it  had  been 
the  practice,  instead  of  employing  climbing-boys,  to  tie  a  rope 
round  the  neck  of  a  goose,  and  thus  drag  the  bird  up  a  chim 
ney,  which  was  cleaned  by  the  fluttering  of  its  wings.  This 
practice  so  much  interested  the  feelings  of  many  persons,  that, 
for  the  sake  of  protecting  the  goose,  they  were  ready  to  give 
up  all  humanity  towards  other  animals.  A  man  in  a  country 
village  having  one  day,  according  to  the  old  custom,  availed 
himself  of  the  aid  of  a  goose,  was  accused  by  his  neighbours 
of  inhumanity.  In  answer  to  the  remonstrance  of  his  accuser, 
he  observed  that  he  must  have  his  chimney  swept.  Yes,  re 
plied  the  humane  friend  of  the  goose,  to  be  sure  you  must 
sweep  your  chimney,  but  you  cruel  baist  you,  why  dont  you 
take  two  ducks,  they  will  do  the  job  as  well."  [Laughing]. 

Whoever  was  present  in  the  gallery  of  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  during  the  examination  of  Mrs.  Clarke,  in  the  affair 
of  the  Duke  of  York,  can  well  remember  the  sportfulness 
of  the  House,  exercised  in  loose  allusions,  and  pushed,  from 
time  to  time,  to  clamorous  merriment.  We  have  witnessed 
no  such  edifying  spectacle,  whether  as  to  the  cause  or  the 
effect,  in  the  American  congress.  Before  I  finish  with  this 


304 


HOSTILITIES  OP  THE 


PART  i.  topic,  I  will  offer  one  case  more  of  parliamentary  inseus.- 
v"x~v^-'  bility,  which,  together  with  what  I  have  already  produced, 
may  soften  the  horror  of  the  Quarterly  Review  at  the  occur 
rence  of  "one  member's  striking  at  another"  in  the  American 
congress.  I  quote  from  the  proceedings  of  the  House  of  Con  • 
mons  for  April  7th,  1819:— 

Mr.  Bennet  said — 

"That  from  the  year  1781  to  the  year  1818,  two  thousand  nil  e 
hundred  and  eighty-seven  women  convicts,  being  in  the  proportion  of 
one-seventh  of  the  men  transported  during1  the  same  period,  had  been 
sent  out  of  the  country.  Of  two  hundred  and  twenty  women  sent  fro  n 
the  year  1816  to  1818,  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  were  sentenced  10 
the  limited  term  of  seven  years  transportation.  Few  of  these  women 
ever  returned.  Their  only  means  of  returning  was  prostitution.  Mary 
of  the  convicts  had  received  judgment  for  capital  offences,  and  many 
for  minor  ones.  Now  the  act  of  the  9th  of  the  King,  chap.  74,  had  been 
drawn  up  on  the  principle,  that  persons  convicted  of  minor  offences 
ought  to  be  confined  to  penitentiaries,  and  not  sent  at  a  great  expense 
to  a  distant  settlement.  A  learned  and  distinguished  judge  had  told 
him,  that  on  the  last  circuit  he  was  about  to  sentence  a  woman  to  be 
transported,  when  his  resolution  was  changed  by  the  clerk  of  the  peace 
informing  him  that  it  was  nearly  impossible  for  women  to  return.  No 
classification  existed  on  board,  but  petty  offenders  were  compelled  to 
herd  and  associate  with  capital  convicts  and  hardened  delinquents. 
This  appeared  to  him  in  the  light  of  a  gratuitous  infliction  of  pain, 
which  was  unworthy  of,  and  discreditable  to,  a  great  country.  He  must 
complain  also  of  the  manner  in  which  women  were  brought  from  coun. 
try  gaols  to  one  spot,  for  the  purpose  of  being  put  on  board  the  vessels 
destined  for  New  South  Wales.  One  unfortunate  girl  had  been  brought 
from  Cambridge,  so  bound  in  chains  that  it  was  necessary  to  saw  them 
asunder;  and  another  girl  from  Carlisle,  sent  up  in  the  same  way,  on 
the  top  of  a  coach,  had  had  her  child  torn  form  her  breast !  When  she 
was  brought  to  Newgate,  she  was  in  the  utmost  state  of  torture.  When 
once  on  board,  no  distinction  was  observed  between  the  small  and  the 
great  offender;  the  girl  whose  passion  for  finery  had  prompted  her  to 
commit  a  petty  theft,  was  placed  in  the  same  bed  with  the  shameles^ 
prostitute  who  robbed  on  system.  He  held  in  his  hand  a  letter  written 
by  Mr.  Marsden,  Chaplain-general  in  New  South  Wales,  and  stating 
that  promiscuous  intercourse  between  the  seamen  and  female  convicts 
had  prevailed  on  board  a  ship  which  had  carried  out  a  great  number  of 
women  previously  trained  under  the  care  of  Mrs.  Fry  and  others,  to 
habits  of  morality  and  decorum. 

"Whether  the  new  system  of  this  year,  with  respect  to  the  regula 
tions  on  board  female  convict  ships,  would  be  better  than  that  of  last 
year,  he  should  not  inquire ;  but  he  objected  to  a  system  under  which, 
when  the  women  arrived  at  New  South  Wales,  they  had  no  place  when- 
they  could  lay  their  heads." 

Mr.  Wilberforce  said — "  that  in  the  present  state  of  the  colony,  every 
fresh  addition  to  the  number  transported,  while  there  was  no  increase 
of  accommodation,  must  add  to  the  misery  and  vice  of  those  who  were 
at  present  there,  besides  plunging  the  new  comers  into  the  same 
wretched  state." 

"  Mr.  F.  Buxton  conceived  that  the  case  of  the  unfortunate  female 
convicts  deserved  particular  consideration.  It  already  appeared  that 
out  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  women  employed  in  one  manufactory, 
t  here  were  one  hundred  and  twenty  turned  out  every  night,  and  obliged 


BRITISH  REVIEWS.  305 

to  depend,  not  to  say  for  comforts,  but  for  necessaries,  upon  the  casual  SEC.  VIII. 
wages  of  prostitution  "  .     ^^^  -^_- 

Mr.  Bathurst  (one  of  the  ministry)  said — "that  before  he  examined 
the  speech  of  the  honourable  mover,  he  should  allude  to  the  argument 
of  his  honourable  friend  (Mr.  Wilberforce),  who  had  argued  that  no 
female  convicts  should  be  sent  off'  until  the  report  of  the  committee 
was  made,  and  he  supposed,  till  some  regulation  was  founded  upon  it. 
Now,  if  this  argument  were  followed  out  consistently,  it  would  go 
much  beyond  the  present  motion,  as  it  would  apply  not  to  one  vessel, 
but  to  all  convicts,  male  or  female.  But  then  it  was  argued  by  the  ho 
nourable  mover,  that  it  was* difficult  to  keep  men,  but  that  females 
might  be  kept  with  great  convenience,  &c." 


306 


SECTION  IX. 


OF  THE  EXISTENCE  OF  NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  THE  UNITEL 
STATES,  AND  OF  THE  BRITISH  ABOLITION  OF  THE  SLAVE 
TRADE. 

PART  i.  1.  I  HAVE  reserved  for  the  concluding  section  of  this  first 
t*x-v^w  part  of  my  Appeal  from  the  Judgments  of  Great  Britain,  the 
topic  of  our  negro  slavery,  the  side  on  which  we  appear  most 
vulnerable,  and  against  which  the  reviewers  have  directed 
their  fiercest  attacks.  With  respect  to  their  reproaches  on 
all  other  grounds,  enough,  I  think,  has  been  adduced  to  show 
how  strangely  they  have  overlooked  the  lesson  of  the  gospel 
— he  that  is  without  sin  let  him  first  cast  the  stone.  They 
have  aggravated  the  offence  of  malevolence  by  extreme  foliy: 
in  selecting  heads  of  accusation  which  may  be  retorted  with 
complete  success.  This  is  as  much  the  case  in  relation  to 
the  existence  of  domestic  slavery  among  us,  as  in  any  other 
instance;  and  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  avail  myself  on  this  oc 
casion,  as  heretofore,  of  an  error  in  reasoning,  which  springs 
as  well  from  a  corruption  of  political  morals,  as  from  an 
eclipse  of  the  understanding.  Of  all  Europeans,  an  English 
man  is  the  one,  who  should  have  most  cautiously  abstained 
from  venting  reproaches,  that  brought  Africa  and  the  slave 
trade  into  view:  If  there  is  any  nation  upon  which  pru 
dence  and  shame  enjoined  silence  in  regard  to  the  negro 
bondage  of  these  States,  England  is  that  nation;  but  it  hap 
pens  precisely  as  in  all  the  other  questions  open  to  the  most 
•  direct  recrimination,  that  it  is  from  her  the  loudest  outcries 
and  the  sharpest  upbraidings  have  come. 

We  experienced  this  particular  injustice,  even  during  our 
colonial  dependence,  while  she  was  actively  supplying  us 
with  slaves,  and  endeavouring  by  the  most  jealous  precau 
tions,  to  secure  this  favourite  branch  of  her  monopoly.  Her 
writers  drew  invidious  comparisons  between  the  situation 
and  prospects  of  the  mother  country  and  those  of  the  con 
tinental  colonies,  founded  upon  the  presence  in  the  latter, 
of  the  multitude  of  blacks  whose  number  and  miseries  sh< 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND  SLAVE  TRADE.  30*7 

was  daily  and  forcibly  augmenting.  When  her  merchants  SECT  ix 
and  travellers  returned  from  this  reprobate  land,  they  insti-  ^*^^- 
tuted  similar  contrasts;  stigmatized  the  colonial  slave-holders; 
and  could  not  pardon  the  atrocity  of  retaining  in  bondage  even 
the  white  convicts  whom  she  had  thrust  into  their  hands.  They 
spread,  concerning  the  habitual  state  of  the  latter,  as  well  as 
of  the  ->laves,  tales  of  horror,  of  the  nature  of  which  we  may 
form  some  idea  from  the  following  passage,  dated  1720,  of 
the  preface  to  Beverley's  History  of  Virginia.  u  It  hath  been 
so  represented  to  the  common  people  of  England  as  to  make 
them  believe,  that  the  servants  in  Virginia  are  made  to  draw 
in  cart  and  plow  as  the  oxen  do  in  England,  and  that  the  coun 
try  turns  all  people  black  who  go  to  live  there;  with  other  such 
prodigious  phantasms."  The  worthy  and  intelligent  histo 
rian,  whose  life  had  been  spent  in  that  colony,  under  circum 
stances  the  most  favourable  to  extensive  and  accurate  obser 
vation,  bore  a  very  different  testimony,  which  may  serve 
equally  well  for  the  present  day — "  I  can  assure  with  great 
truth  that  generally  the  slaves  in  Virginia,  are  not  worked 
near  so  hard,  nor  so  many  hours  in  a  day,  as  the  husbandmen 
and  day  labourers  in  England;  that  no  people  more  abhor  the 
thoughts  of  cruel  usage  to  servants  than  the  Virginians."* 

Since  our  independence,  slave  holding  has  seemed  to  be 
fairly  let  loose  to  the  Briton  for  the  purposes  of  self-congratu 
lation,  and  of  the  execration  of  American  existence;  as  if,  in 
deed.  England  retained  no  longer  a  connexion  with  the  West 
Indies;  frequented  no  more  the  coast  of  Africa;  and  had  ac 
tually  u  in  the  midst  of  her  rottenness,  torn  off  the  manacles 
of  slaves  all  over  the  world."  The  negro  has  invariably 
figured  in  the  reports  of  the  writers  of  that  nation  who  have 
condescended  to  visit  this  country,  as  a  "goblin  damn'd;"  he 
is  the  chief  bugbear  which  Lord  Sheffield  set  up,  in  1784,  to 
deter  Irishmen  from  exchanging  the  blessings  of  their  domes 
tic  condition,  for  the  miseries  of  the  American;  which  Fearon 
was  instructed  to  put  forward  to  correct  that  "  most  mischiev 
ous  evil"  the  emigration  of  English  artisans;  and  which  Bir- 
beck  has  employed  to  draw  into  his  own  neighbourhood  in 
the  Illinois,  such  of  his  countrymen  as  persist  in  seeking  these 
shores,  in  spite  of  Lord  Castlereagh,  and  of  the  effigies  of 
that  evil  "  which  counterbalances  all  the  excisemen,  licensers, 
and  tax-gatherers  of  England." 

The  Edinburgh  Review  having,  in  the  60th  number,  in  the 
article  on  Birbeck's  Travels,  presented  views  tending  to  en- 

*  Book  IV  c.  X. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  AN& 

PART  I.  courage  this  disposition  to  emigrate,  would  seem  to  have  dis 
covered  that  it  had  gone  too  far,  and  suddenly  resolved  10 
counteract  the  effects  of  its  first  representations.  This  is  tie 
natural  explanation  of  the  patriotic  mood  in  which  we  find  it 
in  the  61st  number,  where  every  thing  in  Britain  is  repn  - 
sented  as  inspiring  confidence,  and  inviting  contentment; 
while  all  in  America  is  made  to  wear  a  sinister  and  repulsive 
aspect.  Tile  zeal  of  a  proselyte  is  proverbially  ardent.  Hav 
ing  in  a  rapid  evolution,  set  itself  against  emigration,  this 
journal  could,  of  course,  "  keep  no  measures"  with  negn- 
slavery  in  America.  Here  was  the  yawning  gulph  of  crime 
and  perdition,  at  which  an  Englishman  should  pause,  as  he 
was  blindly  rushing  onward  from  the  tax-gatherer,  and  tie 
"  menacing  hydra  (pauperism)  that  stalked  over  his  native 
land.'?  Belter  remain  where  he  was,  safe  from  the  demoral 
izing  effects  of  commanding  slaves^  and  with  the  consolation 
at  home,  that  he  had  "  an  inestimable  parliament;"  thatu  tie 
next  twenty  years  might  bring  a  great  deal  of  internal  im 
provement;"  that  "  the  apprentice  laws  had  been  swept 
away,"  and  u  the  strong  fortress  of  bigotry  rudely  assailed." 
Care  was  taken  at  the  same  time  not  to  inform  him  how  large 
a  portion  of  our  vast  country,  is  wholly  without  the  institution 
of  slavery;  how  small  a  part  of  our  white  population  is  indebt 
ed  to  the  labour  of  slaves; — that  considerably  more  than  a 
moiety  of  our  whole  population,  inhabiting  distinct  portions  of 
terjitory,  is  altogether  free  from  the  reproach  and  the  detri 
ment  of  commanding  slaves,  while  a  great  probability  obtains 
that  within  "  the  next  twenty  years,"  no  inconsiderable  part 
of  the  remainder  will  enjoy  the  same  exemption. 

Nor  were  these  considerations,  or  the  facts  which  I  propose 
presently  to  adduce,  allowed  to  interfere  with  the  design  of  a 
sweeping  ban  against  the  American  people,  which  should  put 
every  Englishman  in  a  better  humour  with  the  u  rottenness" 
of  England,  by  exhibiting  her  in  contradistinction,  as  the  tute 
lary  genius  of  freedom,  and  the  country  after  which  he  han 
kered,  as  marked  with  fouler  stains,  and  doubly  gangrened 
to  the  very  core.  I  have  already  quoted  literally  the  passage 
of  the  Review,  which  composes  the  grand  arraignment,  and 
will  now  repeat  the  several  weighty  allegations  into  which  it 
is  resolvable.  They  are  as  follows: — The  institution  of  slavery 
is  the  foulest  blot  in  the  national  character  of  America;  its 
existence  in  her  bosom  is  an  atrocious  crime — the  consumma 
tion  of  wickedness,  and  admits  of  no  sort  of  apology  from 
her  situation; — the  American,  generally,  is  a  scourger  and 
murderer  of  slaves,  and  therefore  below  the  least  and  lowest  of 


SLAVE  TRADfc. 

the  European  nations  in  the  scale  of  wisdom  and  virtue;  and,  SECT.IX. 
above  all,  he  sinks,  on  this  account,  immeasurably  in  the  com-  s-^~v^^( 
parison  with  England,  who,  become  the  agent  of  universal 
emancipation,  may  challenge  the  world  to  decide  which  of 
the  two  people  is  the  most  liable  to  censure,  upon  a  general 
consideration  of  their  demerits.  These  propositions  imply, 
and  may  be  converted  into,  others  of  this  purport — that  Ame 
rica  is  chiefly  to  blame  for  the  establishment  and  continuance 
of  her  negro  slavery;  that  she  could  have  suppressed  it  either 
before  or  since  her  independence,  even  with  safety  and  ease; 
that  it  is  a  system  of  flagellation  and  murder,  with  which  she  is 
universally  chargeable;  that  her  congress  has  remained  in 
different  to  its  enormities;  that  on  her  own  part  it  is  incom 
patible  with  soundness  of  heart  or  understanding,  and  with 
the  love  or  the  possession  of  political  freedom;  that  no  nation 
of  Europe,  not  the  lowest  and  least,  presents  a  similar  or 
equally  revolting  spectacle  of  servitude;  that  England  exhi 
bits,  within  the  pale  of  her  power,  a  clear  and  glorious  sun 
shine  of  personal  liberty  and  security;  that  she  is  in  no  wise 
implicated  in  the  guilt  of  the  American;  that  her  dispositions 
have  always  been  benign,  and  her  hands  pure,  in  relation  to 
the  unhappy  race,  whom  we  conspire  to  oppress  and  extermi 
nate;  or  at  least,  that  if  she  has  not  always  been  busy  in 
"tearing oft"  their  manacles,"  and  assuaging  their  sorrows,  if 
she  has  ever  been  taxable  with  a  part  of  their  wrongs,  and 
stained  with  a/etc  drops  of  their  blood,  she  has,  by  her  subse 
quent  temper  aud  conduct,  purged  away  the  taint,  and  made 
ample  amends  to  them,  and  to  the  cause  of  justice  and  freedom 
America  and  Britain  are  here  put  at  direct  issue,  on 
points  which  vitally  affect  national  character;  the  American 
is  cited,  officiously  and  triumphantly,  before  the  world,  by  a 
British  literary  tribunal  on  the  Areopagus  of  Edinburgh,  to 
measure  himself  upon  them  with  the  Briton.  For  the  sake  ol 
historical  truth,  as  well  as  for  our  own  honour,  and  the  repulse 
of  arrogant  and  invasive  pretensions,  we  are  bound  to  appear, 
and  answer  in  the  best  way  we  can,  towards  our  own  vindi 
cation,  and  the  confusion  of  the  aggressor.  There  is  no  keen 
ness  or  latitude  of  retaliation  which  will  appear  excessive  after 
such  provocation;  and  indulgence  will  be  readily  granted,  for 
the  same  reason,  should  details  of  fact  be  reproduced,  eithei 
familiar  to  most  readers,  or  harrowing  for  the  feelings  of  hu 
manity. 

2.  I  am  not  sorry  to  have  an  opportunity,  at  length,  of 
pleading  the  apology  of  the  early  American  colonists,  on  a 


310  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.  score  left  untouched  in  the  pages  which  I  have  devoted  to 
'*~*~^-^s  them  in  particular.  What  then  is  the  first  general  fact  which 
offers  itself  in  the  question?  It  is  this — that  England,  who 
had  been  actively,  eagerly,  engaged  in  the  slave  trade  since 
the  year  1562,  herself  supplied  her  North  American  colonists, 
from  the  outset,  with  negroes  whom  she  sought,  and  seize}, 
and  manacled,  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  dragged  and  sold 
into  this  continent.  The  institution  of  negro  slavery,  "  the 
great  curse  of  America,"  lies,  indisputably,  at  her  door. 
What  was  her  motive?  The  alleviation  of  the  lot  of  hor 
sons  whom  she  had  driven  into  the  distant  wilderness?  No 
British  writer  has  counted  so  far  upon  the  simplicity  of  man 
kind  as  to  hazard  this  explanation.  The  motive  was  sheor 
love  of  gain;  omniverous  avarice;  looking  not  merely  to  the 
immediate  profit  upon  the  cargo  of  human  flesh,  but  to  the 
greater,  and  permanent  productiveness  of  the  settlements 
whose  staples  were  to  be  monopolized  by  the  mother  country. 
Let  it  be  conceded,  that  the  colonists  received  the  auxiliaries 
thus  brought  to  their  hands,  and  whom  they  durst  not  reject, 
without  repugnance,  perhaps  with  avidity.  But,  considering 
the  nature  of  their  respective  motives  and  situation,  does  the 
guilt  of  the  receiver  in  this  case  bear  any  proportion  to  that 
of  the  trader?  Can  the  seduced  be  brought  down,  by  any 
principle  of  reasoning,  to  the  level  of  the  seducer?  If  the 
colonists,  the  souihern  particularly,  in  a  new  climate  noxious 
to  the  white  labourer,  but  favourable  to  the  African  constitu 
tion;  exposed  to  much  physical  suffering  from  other  causes, 
and  to  so  many  additional  influences  depressing  for  the  mini1.; 
liable  to  be  called  off  from  the  culture  of  the  soil  by  the 
irruptions  of  the  savage  native; — yielded  to  the  temptation  so 
immediate,  of  being  relieved  from  the  wasting  labours  of  the 
field,  and  enabled  to  provide  more  effectually  for  their  defence 
against  the  Indian; — if  we  suppose  them  even  to  have  gone  in 
quest  of  the  negro  slave,  in  a  few  instances,  after  the  mother 
country  had  set  them  the  example,  and  given  them  a  taste  of 
the  relief  which  he  could  afford, — are  they  not  to  be  considered 
quite  as  excusable  as  we  can  conceive  men  to  be  by  any  possi 
bility,  in  any  instance  of  the  adoption  of  domestic  servitude, 
or,  indeed,  of  the  commission  of  any  wrong? 

It  is  a  contested  point  whether  the  constitution  even  of  the 
native  white  is  equal  to  the  task  of  cultivating  the  earth  suc 
cessfully  in  our  southern  states,  in  the  actual  condition  of -its 
surface;  but  in  the  first  century  of  settlement,  when  the  forest 
was  still  to  be  felled,  and  the  climate,  more  noxious  in  itsejfs 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


Jll 


exercised  a  more  fatal  influence,  the  service  of  the  negro  was  -SECT.  ix. 
more  important,  and  would  naturally  be  thought  indispensable  v-*~>^w 
by  the  colonists. 

This  plea,  too,  may  be  urged  for  them,  that,  in  common 
with  the  wisest  men  of  the  age,  numbers  believed  slavery  to 
be  strictly  lawful  in  itself,  both  according  to  natural  and  re 
vealed  religion.  The  same  plea  has,  indeed,  been  advanced 
in  favour  of  the  slave-dealing  nation;  but,  though  we  can  sup 
pose  the  conscience  of  the  colonist,  with  the  bible  in  his  hands, 
to  have  remained  at  rest  upon  the  mere  purchase,  and  appro 
priation  of  the  negre,  at  his  door,  with  the  mode  of  whose 
acquisition  in  Africa  he  was  unacquainted,  it  is  impossible  to 
imagine  so  entire  a  perversion  and  torpor  of  human  reason  and 
feeling,  as  is  implied  by  the  supposition  that  the  former,  while 
exciting  intestine  wars  in  Africa,  trepanning  the  unwary, 
tearing  the  native  from  the  centre  of  the  dearest  ties,  exer 
cising,  in  short,  the  most  nefarious  arts,  and  fell  cruelties,  to 
secure  the  African  victim,  could  remain  insensible  to  the  cri 
minality  of  the  pursuit.  Another  bondage,  the  guilt  of  which 
oone  have  had  the  hardihood  to  palm  upon  the  colonists,  I 
mean  that  of  men  of  their  own  colour  and  nation,  objects,  for  the 
most  part,  of  the  injustice  and  vengeance  of  faction  and  bigotry 
in  the  mother  country,  tended  to  reconcile  them  the  more  to 
the  subjection  of  the  negro  whom  she  taught  them,  at  the 
same  time,  to  regard  as  of  an  inferior  species.  In  every  way 
did  she  familiarize  and  train  them  to  that  institution  which  she 
now  charges  upon  their  descendants  as  "  the  consummation 
of  wickedness." 

3.  It  has  been  shown,  in  my  second  section,  that  the  colo 
nists  became  dissatisfied,  at  an  early  period,  with  the  intro 
duction  of  the  British  convicts  among  them,  and  endeavoured, 
though  ineffectually,  both  by  remonstrance  and  edicts,  to  arrest 
the  practice.  They  conceived,  also,  before  the  expiration  ot 
the  seventeenth  century,  both  disgust  and  apprehension  at  the 
importation  of  the  negro  slaves,  and  took,  with  no  better  suc 
cess,  similar  ^'measures  for  its  repression.  Some  few  of  th<. 
merchants  of  the  northern  colonies  had  embarked  in  the  trade, 
and  a  comparatively  small  number  of  the  victims  was  held  in 
servitude  there;  but  only  a  very  short  time  elapsed,  before 
scruples  arose  among  the  conscientious  puritans  and  quakers, 
and  the  whole  system  fell  into  disrepute  and  reprobation. 
Clarkson  has  not  been  able  to  show  for  Great  Britain,  its 
chief  patroo  and  agent,  so  early  and  pointed  an  expression  of 
just  views  aud  feelings  on  the  subject,  from  any  quarter,  as  is 


312 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  ANti 


PART  I.  found  in  the  following  facts,  which  I  adduce  upon  the  autho- 
^^^^^  lily  of  public  records,  and  in  the  language  of  Dr.  Belknao, 
the  historian  of  New  Hampshire: 

•"  In  1645,  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  which  then 
exercised  jurisdiction  over  the  settlements  at  Pascataqm, 
4  thought  proper  to  write  to  Mr.  Williams,  residing  there, 
understanding  that  the  negroes  which  a  Captain  Smyth  had 
brought,  were  fraudulently  and  injuriously  tak-  n  and  brought 
from  Guinea,  by  Captain  Smyth's  confession,  and  the  rest,  of 
the  company — that  he  forthwith  send  the  negro,  which  he  h  \d 
of  Captain  Smyth,  hither;  that  he  may  be  sent  home;  whi  ;h 
the  Court  do  resolve  to  send  back  without  delay.  And  if  you 
have  anything  to  allege,  why  you  should  not  return  him,  to  je 
disposed  of  by  the  Court,  it  will  be  expected  you  should 
forthwith  make  it  appear,  either  by  yourself  or  your  agent.  " 
,  About  the  same  time,  viz.  1645,  a  law  was  made,  "pro 
hibiting  the  buying  and  selling  of  slaves,  except  those  taken 
in  lawful  war,  or  reduced  to  servitude  for  their  crimes,  by  a 
judicial  sentence;  and  these  were  to  have  the  same  privileges 
as  were  allowed  by  the  law  of  Moses." 

ct  Among  the  laws  for  punishing  capital  crimes,  enacted  in 
1649,  is  the  following — c  10.  If  any  man  stealeth  a  man  or 
mankind,  he  shall  be  surely  put  to  death.  Exodus,  xxi.  16.'  "* 

In  1703,  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts  imposed  a  heavy 
duty  on  every  negro  imported,  for  the  payment  of  which  both 
the  vessel  and  master  were  answerable.  In  1767,  they  made 
a  more  direct  attempt  to  effect  the  object  of  that  impost.  A 
bill  was  brought  into  the  House  of  Representatives  u  to  pre 
vent  the  unnatural  and  unwarrantable  custom  of  enslaving  man- 
kind,  and  the  iftiportation  of  slaves  into  the  province."  In  its 
progress  it  was  changed,  in  consequence  of  the  utter  improba 
bility  of  the  success  of  one  of  that  scope,  with  the  royal  go 
vernor,  into  "  an  act  for  laying  an  impost  on  negroes  imported." 
Even  this  was  so  metamorphosed  and  mutilated  by  the  council, 
that  the  house  refused  to  proceed  in  the  business.  It  must 
have  failed  with  the  governor,  had  it  passed  both  assemblies, 
and  in  whatever  shape,  as  all  the  royal  governors  had  it  in  ex 
press  command  from  the  British  cabinet  to  reject  all  laws  of  t  hat 
description.  The  original  instructions,  afterwards  published, 
of  the  date  of  June  30th,  1761,  to  Benning  J.  Wentworth, 
Esquire,  governor  of  New  Hampshire,  contained  this  clause — 

*  See  the  4th  vol.  Massachusetts'  Histor.  Coll.  for  Dr.  Belknap's 
account  of  Slavery  in  that  province. 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


313 


;  You  are  not  to  give  your  assent  to,  or  pass  any  law,  impos-  SECT  rx. 
ing  duties  on  negroes  imported  into  New  Hampshire."* 

The  legislature  of  Massachusetts  persisted,  in  defiance  of 
the  known  policy  of  the  British  rulers;  and  in  January,  1774, 
framed  a  bill,  entitled  "  An  act  to  prevent  the  importation  of 
negroes,  and  others,  as- slaves  into  this  province."  It  passed 
through  all  the  forms  in  both  houses,  and  was  laid  before 
governor  Hutchinson,  for  his  sanction.  On  the  next  day, 
the  assembly  received  a  harsh  answer,  and  notice  of  pro 
rogation.  The  negroes  of  the  province  had  deputed  a  com 
mittee  respectfully  to  solicit  the  governor's  consent;  he  told 
them  that  his  instructions  forbade  it.  His  successor,  General 
Gage,  when  solicited  in  the  same  way,  gave  the  same  answer. 
The  courts  of  justice  in  Massachusetts  went  farther  than 
the  legislature.  Several  blacks  sued  their  masters  for  their 
freedom,  and  for  wages  for  past  service,  upon  the  grounds, 
that  the  royal  charter  expressly  declared  all  persons  born  or 
residing  in  the  province  to  be  as  free  as  the  king's  subjects 
residing  in  Great  Britain;  that  by  the  laws  of  England  no 
man  could  be  deprived  of  his  liberty  but  by  the  judgment  of 
his  peers;  that  the  laws  of  the  province  relating  to  an  exist 
ing  evil,  and  attempting  to  mitigate  or  regulate  it,  did  not 
authorize  it;  that  though  the  slavery  of  the  parents  should  Ue 
admitted  to  be  legal,  yet  no  disability  of  the  kind  could  de 
scend  to  children.  The  first  trial  took'place  in  1770,  and  ter 
minated  in  favour  of  the  negroes.  Other  suits  were  instituted 
between  that  period  and  the  revolution,  and  the  juries  invaria 
bly  gave  their  verdict  for  the  plaintiffs.  The  case  of  the 
negro  Somerset  has  been  the  subject  of  unceasing  boast  and 
compliment  for  England.  Yet,  if  we  consider  the  circum 
stances  on  both  sides,  it  must  appear  less  creditable  than  the 
judgment  of  the  Massachusetts  court  in  1770.  The  latter 
preceded  the  British  decision  by  two  years;  it  was  given  upon 
equally  broad  principles,  in  the  midst  of  a  long  established 
practice  of  negro  slavery;  and  in  defiance  of  the  system  of 
the  British  colonial  administration.  We  are  told  by  Clarkson 
that,  in  1768,  an  African  slave  prosecuted,  in  England,  a  per 
son  of  the  name  of  Newton,  for  kidnapping  his  wife,  and 
sending  her  to  the  West  Indies;  and  obtained  uo  more,  upon 
the  conviction  of  the  defendant,  than  one  shilling  cdw^ges, 
and  an  order  for  the  restitution  of  the  woman  within  six 
months;  that,  with  respect  to  the  doctrine  of  the  immediate 
disenthralment  of  the  African  slave  on  his  arrival  in  England, 

*  See  Gordon,  Hist,  of  Am.  Rev.  vol.  v.  letter  % 

VOL.  I.— Rr 


'314.  JSEGRO  SLAVERY  ANB 

PART  T.  Judge  Blackstone  discountenanced  it  when  bis  opinion  wiis 
^~^>w  sought  by  Granville  Sharp;  that  no  satisfactory  answer  could 
be  obtained  from  the  lawyers  to  whom  this  philanthropist 
applied;  that  Lord  Mansfield  wavered,  or  rather  inclined  10 
the  adverse  sentiment;  and  that,  until  the  trial  of  the  Somer 
set  case,  the  great  question  had  been  studiously  avoided. 

Legislative  proceedings  in  relation  to  the  exclusion  of  slaves, 
similar  to  those  of  Massachusetts,  are  recorded  in  the  annals 
of  the  other  New  England  provinces.  Pennsylvania  and  New 
Jersey  trod  in  their  footsteps,  and  early  displayed  a  stroi g 
desire,  arising  from  the  same  considerations,  to  plant  en 
effectual  barrier  against  the  evil  of  continued  importation;  but 
their  enactments  were  regularly  overruled  in  England.* 

The  condition  of  the  slaves,  in  all  the  provinces  north  Df 
the  Susquehannah,  was  more  exempt  from  hardship  and  abjec 
tion  than  negro  slavery  had  ever  been  known  to  be  elsewhere, 
in  modern  times.  In  New  England  particularly,  their  lot  wis 
far  from  being  severe.  They  were  often  bought  by  conscien 
tious  persons,  for  the  purpose  of  being  well  instructed  in  the 
Christian  religion.  They  had,  universally,  the  enjoyment  of 
the  Sabbath  as  a  day  of  rest  or  of  devotion.  No  greater  toil 
was  exacted  from  them  than  from  the  white  labourers,  who 
worked  in  common  with  them.  In  the  maritime  towns,  they 
served  either  in  families,  as  domestics,  or  at  mechanical  em 
ployments;  and  in  neither  case  did  they  fare  worse  than  their 
white  comrades.  In  the  country,  where  they  were  much  less 
numerous,  altogether,  and  in  no  instance  exceeded  three 
or  four  in  the  hands  of  one  proprietor,  they  lived  as  well  as 
their  masters,  and  not  unfrequently  sat  down  to  the  same 
table,  as  their  emancipated  brethren  do  at  this  day,  in  the 
interior  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  eastern  states.  For  se 
rious  offences  they  were  committed  to  the  common  houses  of 
correction,  to  which  disorderly  persons  of  all  colours  were 
sent.  To  be  sold  to  the  West  Indies,  was  the  most  formi 
dable  punishment,  with  which  they  could  be  threatened  or  vi 
sited. 

Popular  opinion  early  and  spontaneously  proscribed  the 
slave  trade;  disgrace  attached  to  the  character  of  those  who 
were  engaged  in  it  principally  or  ministerially;  cases  of  sea 
men  perishing  by  the  homicidal  climate  of  Guinea,  or  in  con 
tests  with  the  natives;  and  of  death  bed  repentance  at  home, 
rendering  audible  and  unequivocal  the  voice  of  conscience. 

*  The  law  of  Pennsylvania,  of  1728,  imposing-  a  duty  upon  the  im 
portation  of  negroes,  allows  a  drawback  on  re-exportation. 


SLAVE  TRADE.  315 

confirmed  the  public  antipathy.  Had  there  been  a  general  SECT.ix. 
readiness  to  engage  in  the  traffic,  the  opportunity  could  not  ^^^~^r 
have  been  found.  The  British  merchants,  and  the  Royal 
African  Company  in  particular,  which  I  shall  mention  further 
by  and  by,  were  too  eager  for  the  exclusive  enjoyment,  to 
allow  the  provincials  to  share  in  it  in  a  material  degree.  The 
American  vessels  which  appeared  on  the  African  coast,  were 
regarded  as  interlopers,  infringing  a  precious  monopoly.  The 
Reports  of  the  u  Proceedings  in  the  House  of  Commons  on 
the  state  of  the  African  Company  and  of  the  Trade  to  Africa," 
inform  us  that  "  proofs  were  given  by  the  Company  of  some 
ships  trading  directly  from  Virginia,  and  other  parts  of  America, 
and  disposing  of  their  cargoes  of  tobacco  and  other  commodi 
ties,  the  produce  of  that  country,  on  the  coast,  and  in  return 
purchasing  slaves  and  returning  whence  they  came,  under  the 
suffrance  or  rather  open  toleration  of  the  governors  and  oiher 
subordinate  persons  in  command.75  This  fact  of  the  tolera 
tion  of  Americans  was  brought  forward  "to  prove  the  injury 
the  forts  and  governors  were  to  the  trade  to  Africa;"  it  being 
also  in  evidence  that  "  the  governors  were  all  traders  on  their 
own  account,  or  factors  for  principals  in  England,  and  endea 
voured  to  forestall  the  market."  In  stating  the  value  of  the 
British  exports  to  America,  Lord  Sheffield  remarks,  in  his 
Observations,  that  there  was  to  be  added  "  between  two  and 
three  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling,  sent  to  Africa  annu 
ally  for  the  purchase  of  slaves  which  were  chiefly  imported  by 
British  merchants  into  the  American  provinces."  But  it  is 
superfluous  to  adduce  testimony  of  this  kind,  since  no  histori 
cal  fact  is  more  notorious,  than  that  by  far  the  greater  portion 
of  the  negroes  introduced  into  North  America,  was  brought  by 
British  vessels,  on  account  of  British  merchants,  and  under 
the  special  sanction  of  the  British  parliament. 

4.  If  the  government  of  the  mother  country,  to  favour  the 
British  trade  with  Africa,  laboured  to  prevent  the  exclusion 
of  negro  slaves  even  from  New  Hampshire,  its  policy  on  this 
head  would  naturally  be  of  a  most  determined  and  jealous 
character  in  reference  to  the  southern  provinces.  The  history 
of  Virginia  furnishes  illustrations  as  creditable  to  her,  as  dis 
graceful  to  the  British  councils;  and,  though  that  history  'm 
general  may  never  have  been  examined  by  the  writers  of  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  they  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  been 
ignorant  of  the  following  passage  of  Brougham's  Colonial  Po 
licy. — u  Every  measure  proposed  by  the  Colonial  Legislatures, 
that  did  not  meet  the  entire  concurrence  of  the  British  Cabinet, 


316  NEGHO  SLAVERY  AND 

PARTI,  was  sure  to  be  rejected,  in  the  last  instance,  by  the  crown 
•--^•v-^'  In  the  colonies,  the  direct  power  of  the  crown,  backed  by  all 
the  resources  of  the  mother  country,  prevents  any  measure 
obnoxious  to  the  crown  from  being  carried  into  effect,  even  bv" 
the  unanimous  efforts  of  the  colonial  legislature.  If  example:; 
•were  required,  we  might  refer  to  the  history  of  the  abolition 
of  the  slave  trade  in  Virginia.  A  duty  on  the  importation  of 
negroes  had  been  imposed,  amounting  to  a  prohibition.  One 
assembly,  induced  by  a  temporary  peculiarity  of  circumstances, 
repealed  this  law  by  a  bill  which  received  the  immediate  sanc 
tion  of  the  crown.  But  never  afterwards  could  the  royal 
assent  be  obtained  to  a  renewal  of  the  duty,  although  as  we 
are  told  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  all  manner  of  expedients  were  tried 
for  this  purpose,  by  almost  every  subsequent  assembly  that 
met  under  the  colonial  government.  The  very  first  assembly 
that  met  under  the  new  constitution,  finally  prohibited  the 
traffic.7'* 

I  have  suggested  the  circumstances  which  would  greatly  ex 
tenuate  any  degree  of  eagerness,  on  the  part  of  the  first  inhabi 
tants  of  the  southern  provinces,  in  receiving  the  British  slave 
ships.  Whatever  this  may  have  been  in  Virginia,  the  opposite 
disposition  certainly  manifested  itself  in  her  legislature,  befon 
the  expiration  of  the  seventeenth  century,  The  learned  Judge 
Tucker,  of  that  state,  whose  notes  on  the  Commentaries  of 
Blackstone  are  so  highly  and  justly  valued  among  us,  fur 
nishes  a  list  of  no  less  than  twenty-three  acts,  imposing  duties 
on  slaves  imported,  which  occur  in  the  various  compilations 
of  Virginia  laws.  The  first  bears  date  in  the  year  1699;  and 
the  real  design  of  all  of  them  was,  not  revenue,  but  the  re 
pression  of  the  importation.  In  general,  the  buyer  was  charged 
with  the  duty,  in  order  to  secure  a  better  reception  for  the  acts 
in  England,  and  particularly  to  render  them  less  obnoxious 
to  the  African  Company.  The  royal  assent  was  first  ob 
tained,  not  without  great  difficulty,  to  a  duty  of  five  per  cent 
in  this  shape.  Requisitions  for  aids  from  the  crown,  on  par 
ticular  occasions,  furnished  pretexts  for  increasing  the  duty 
from  five  to  ten,  and  finally  to  twenty  per  cent.  In  1772,  most 
of  the  duties  previously  imposed  were  re-enacted,  and  the 
assembly  transmitted,  at  the  same  time,  a  petition  to  the  throne, 
which  speaks  almost  all  that  could  be  desired  for  the  confu 
sion  of  our  slanderers.  Judge  Tucker  has  made  the  follow 
ing  extract  from  it,  in  his  Appendix  to  the  1st  vol.  pt.  2.  of 
Blackstone: — 

*  Book  II.  Sect.  i. 


SLAVE  TRADE.  317 

•{  We  are  encouraged  to  look  up  to  the  throne,  and  im-  SECT,  ix, 
plore  your  majesty's  paternal  assistance  in  averting  a  cala-  ^^^^^s 
mity  of  a  most  alarming  nature.55 

uThe  importation  of  slaves  into  the  colonies  from  the  coast 
of  Africa,  hath  long  been  considered  as  a  trade  of  great  inhu 
manity,  and  under  its  present  encouragement,  we  have  too  much 
reason  to  fear,  will  endanger  the  very  existence  of  your  ma 
jesty's  American  dominions." 

"  We  are  sensible  that  some  of  your  majesty's  subjects  of 
Great  Britain  may  reap  emoluments  from  this  sort  of  trattic, 
but  when  we  consider  that  it  greatly  retards  the  settlement  ot 
the  colonies,  with  more  useful  inhabitants,  and  may  in  time 
have  the  most  destructive  influence,  we  presume  to  hope,  that 
the  interest  of  a  few  will  be  disregarded  when  placed  in  com 
petition  with  the  security  and  happiness  of  such  numbers  of 
your  majesty's  dutiful  and  loyal  subjects," 

"  Deeply  impressed  with  these  sentiments,  we  most  humbly 
beseech  your  majesty  to  remove  all  those  restraints  on  your 
majesty^  governors  of  this  colony,  which  inhibit  their  assent 
ing  to  such  laws  as  might  check  so  very  pernicious  a  com 
merce." 

The  petition  proved  unavailing.  In  the  first  clause  of  the 
independent  constitution  of  Virginia,  "the  inhuman  use  of 
the  royal  negative"  in  this  matter,  is  enumerated  among 
the  reasons  of  the  separation  from  the  mother  country. 
Mr.  Burke,  as  we  have  seen  in  one  of  the  quotations 
which  I  have  made  from  his  speech  on  the  Conciliation 
with  America,  recognized  her  "  refusal  to  deal  any  more  in 
the  inhuman  traffic  of  the  negro  slaves,  as  one  of  the  causes 
of  her  quarrel  with  Great  Britain."  I  must  claim  permission 
to  connect  here  with  the  petition,  a  statement  subjoined  to  it 
by  Judge  Tucker,  which  shows  that  it  did  not  cost  the  British 
government  a  moment's  deliberation  to  sacrifice  "the  secu 
rity  and  happiness  of  such  numbers  of  his  majesty's  dutiful 
and  loyal  subjects"  to  "the  interest  of  the  few"  in  England, 
"  I  have  lately  been  favoured  with  the  perusal  of  a  manu 
script  copy  of  a  letter  from  Granville  Sharp,  Esq.  of  London, 
to  a  friend  of  the  prime  minister,  dated  March  25th,  1794,  in 
which  he  speaks  of  the  petition  thus:  "I  myself  was  desired, 
by  a  letter  from  America,  to  inquire  for  an  answer  to  this 
extraordinary  Virginia  petition.  I  waited  on  the  Secretary  of 
State,  and  was  informed  by  himself  that  the  petition  was  re 
ceived,  but  that  (he  apprehended)  no  answer  would  be  given." 

That  the  inclination  to  impose  the  yoke  of  perpetual  bon 
dage  on  any  part  of  their  fellow  creatures,  if  it  ever  existed 


318  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.  among  the  majority  of  the  Virginia  planters,  soon  subsided,  H 
v-*-v-^/  manifest  from  an  act  which  is  traced  to  1662,  declaring  that 
ano  Englishman,  trader,  or  other,  who  should  bring  in  any 
Indians  as  servants,  and  assign  them  over  to  any  other,  should 
sell  them  for  slaves,  nor  for  any  other  time  than  English  of  like 
age  could  serve  by  act  of  assembly.1'  Thus  early  was  the 
state  of  slavery  prohibited,  where  it  was  not  exacted  by  the 
higher  authority:  and  the  first  opportunity  was  taken,  after  tin; 
declaration  of  independence,  to  extinguish  the  detestable  com  • 
merce  so  long  forced  upon  the  province.  In  October,  1778, 
during  the  tumult  and  anxiety  of  revolution,  the  general  as 
sembly  passed  a  law,  prohibiting,  under  heavy  penalties,  the 
further  importation  of  slaves,  and  declaring  that  every  slave 
imported  thereafter,  should  be  immediately  free.  The  example 
of  Virginia  was  followed  at  different  times  before  the  date  of 
the  federal  constitution,  by  most  of  the  other  states. 

While  the  mother  country  withheld  from  the  provinces  thf 
power  of  arresting  importation,  and  incessantly  added  to  tht 
number  of  the  blacks,  the  abolition  of  slavery  itself  was 
wholly  out  of  the  question.  It  was  rendered  impossible  for 
the  southern  colonists,  consistently  with  their  own  preserva 
tion;  and  had  it  seemed  practicable,  and  been  attempted 
by  any  of  the  colonial  legislatures,  the  royal  negative  would 
have  been  still  more  readily  and  vigorously  exercised  than  in 
the  case  of  importation.  Even  the  West  India  Islands  en 
deavoured,  from  time  to  time,  to  limit  the  importation  ot 
slaves  into  their  ports;  and  were  counteracted  by  the  African 
interest,  as  it  was  called,  in  England.  In  1744,  the  legislature 
of  Jamaica  laid  duties  amounting  nearly  to  prohibition;  in 
1774,  they  made  a  similar  experiment,  alleging  as  their  mo 
tive,  the  apprehension  excited  in  the  island  by  the  numbers  ot 
the  negroes  imported;  the  merchants  of  England  engaged  in 
the  trade,  took  the  alarm  on  their  side,  petitioned  against  the 
duties,  and  obtained  a  royal  order  to  the  governor  of  Jamaica 
to  discontinue  the  levy. 

In  the  history  of  the  relations  of  Great  Britain  with  the 
American  colonies  in  general,  there  is  no  circumstance  more 
abundantly  evidenced,  than  her  steady  determination  to  main 
tain  her  slave  trade  in  the  greatest  activity  and  extent,  what 
ever  might  be  their  feelings  of  disgust  or  apprehension;  and 
however  gloomy  the  aspect  which  the  continuation  of  it  gave 
to  their  destinies.  Their  permanent  welfare,  their  immediate 
comfort,  weighed  as  nothing  in  the  balance  with  the  prosperity 
of  the  Royal  African  Company,  and  the  plenty  of  American 
products. 


SLAVE  TRADE.  319 

All  that  the  English  writers  now  pour  forth  about  the  in-  SECT.  IX. 
trinsic  horrors  and  miseries  of  negro  slavery;  its  obvious  and  s^^/-*-> 
certain  destructiveness  to  the  morals  of  the  masters;  and  its 
equally  manifest  and  inevitable  tendency  to  quench  the  spirit 
of  liberty,  and  banish  social  order  and  domestic  peace;  all,  if 
we  admit  it  to  be  true,  recoils  upon  Great  Britain,  who,  having 
these  things  before  her  eyes,  yet,  from  the  thirst  of  gain, — 
in  order  that  her  commerce  and  revenue  should  receive  every 
possible  increase — opened  this  even  worse  than  Pandora's  box, 
upon  the  race  of  her  offspring  in  this  hemisphere,  and  re 
morselessly  continued  to  replenish  it,  in  spite  of  their  remon 
strances  and  terrors,  as  long  as  they  remained  subject  to  her 
controul. 

The  act  which  dissolved  the  indentures  of  servants  enlisting 
in  his  majesty^  service  in  America,  is  the  only  one  in  the  re 
cords  of  the  British  parliament,  that  looked  to  the  "  tearing 
off  manacles"  here.  Not  a  single  step  was  ever  taken  by  the 
British  government,  towards  the  suppression  or  mitigation,  of 
any  form  of  bondage  in  the  North  American  provinces. 

5.  From  the  facts  which  I  have  adduced,  we  may  confi 
dently  infer,  that  the  North  American  provinces  would,  but 
for  the  oppressive  and  avaricious  opposition  of  the  mother 
country,  have  put  a  stop  to  the  importation  of  negroes  at  a 
much  earlier  period  than  the  era  of  their  independence.  We 
may  even  believe,  that,  with  their  general  dispositions  and 
views,  they  would  have  gone  further;  since  the  multiplica 
tion  of  the  slaves  presented,  next  to  the  will  of  the  British 
government,  the  most  serious  obstacle  to  abolition.  We 
have  scarcely  room  to  doubt  of  the  course  which  New  Eng 
land,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  in  particular,  would 
have  pursued,  in  their  more  favourable  domestic  situation, 
and  under  the  influence  of  their  more  rigorous  principles,  had 
they  been  free  to  act  as  these  must  have  prompted.  As  little 
doubt  can  be  entertained,  that,  if  their  colonial  connexion 
with  Great  Britain  had  continued,  they  would  have  been  com 
pelled  lo  submit  to  the  continuance  of  the  evils  in  question. 

The  voice  of  religion  and  humanity  crying  out  against  the 
traffic  in  human  flesh,  was  heard  at  an  earlier  period,  and  more 
distinctly,  from  the  bosom  of  these  colonies,  than  from  any  other 
part  of  the  British  dominions.  Clarkson  has  narrated  at 
large,  in  his  History  of  the  Abolition,  the  systematic  efforts 
towards  that  end,  of  benevolent  individuals  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  He  was  unacquainted  with  the  pamphlet  of  George 
Keith,  A^ritten  before  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century;  but 


320  NEGRO  SLAVERY   AND 

PART  i.  lie  has  celebrated  the  labours  of  Lay,  Sandiford,  Woolman, 
s-^~^^>  Benezet,  and  Rush.  The  Scottish  critics  might  have  learned 
from  him,  that  the  writings  which  gave  the  first  impulse,  and 
exerted  the  widest  influence,  in  the  cause  which  they  have 
united  with  him  in  exalting  to  the  skies,  issued  from  this 
quarter;*  that  a  numerous  society  devoted  to  that  cause,  and 
composed  of  men  of  all  religious  denominations,  was  organ 
ized  here  twelve  years  before  any  association  for  the  same 
purpose  had  existed  in  England.  There,  a  multitude  of  wri 
ters  and  speakers  have  contended  for  the  justice,  humanity, 
and  evangelical  character  of  the  slave  trade:  here,  we  havj 
had  no  instance  of  a  formal  vindication  of  it,  in  any  shape.  I 
have  never  heard  of  an  American  speech  or  pamphlet  on  ths 
subject,  that  did  not  acknowledge  its  atrocity. 

England  renounced  the  slave  trade  on  the  25th  of  March, 
1807,  by  a  law  which  enacted,  that  no  vessel  should  clear  out 
for  slaves  from  any  port  within  the  British  dominions  after  th: 
1st  of  May,  1807,  and  that  no  slave  should  be  landed  in  th<; 
colonies  after  the  1st  of  March,  1808.  She  has  claimed  the  me 
rit  of  having  set  the  example  of  this  renunciation  to  the  world 
Lord  Caatiereagb  boasted,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  on  the 
9th  of  February,  1818,  that,  on  the  subject  of  making  the  slave 
traffic  punishable  as  a  crime,  Great  Britain  had  led  the  way 
Virginia  was,  however,  a  sovereign  and  independent  state, 
when  she  abolished  the  traffic  in  1778.  Pennsylvania,  Mas 
sachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island,  had  the  same  cha 
racter,  when  they  prohibited  it  to  their  citizens,  in  whatever 
degree  or  form,  and  under  the  severest  penalties,  in  the  years 
1780,  1787,  1788.  On  the  16th  of  March,  1792,  Denmark 
promulged  a  law  on  the  subject  of  the  slave  trade,  which  pro 
vided  for  its  total  cessation  on  the  part  or  in  behalf  of  Danish 
subjects,  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1803;  and  which  prescrib 
ed  that  all  importations  of  slaves  into  the  Danish  dominions 
should  cease  at  the  same  period.  This  law  was  carried  into 
complete  execution,  according  to  the  letter,  and  has  been 
faithfully  observed.  It  established,  besides,  some  very  salu 
tary  regulations  for  the  improvement  of  the  mind,  morals,  and 
general  condition  of  the  blacks  in  the  Danish  Islands. 

The  American  continental  Congress,  so  called,  passed  a  re* 
solution  against  the  purchase  of  slaves  imported  from  Africa; 
and  published  an  exhortation  to  the  colonies  to  abandon  the 

*  Scarcely  any  suggestion  on  the  subject,  of  real  importance,  has 
been  made  in  England,  which  is  not  to  he  found  in  Anthony  Benezet' s 
work,  entitled  "  Some  Historical  Account  of  Guinea," 


SLAVE  TRAHE.  321 

trade  altogether.     The  third  Congress  of  the  United  States,  SEOT.IX. 
under  the  present  federal  constitution,  prohibited  the  carrying  v^-v^*^ 
on  of  the  slave  trade  from  our  ports.     But  in  order  to  show 
more  fully,  the  grounds  upon  which  the  American  govern 
ment  may  contest  the  merit  both  of  priority  and  zeal  with 
the  British,  I  will  transcribe  from  the  general  index  to  the 
laws  of  the  former,  the  abstract  of  what  it  had  done  in  this 
respect,  before  the  date  of  the  British  prohibition. 

1.  No  citizens  or  others  to  build  or  fit  out  vessels,  &c.  to  carry  on  the 
slave  trade  to  or  between  foreign  countries,  &c. — Vessels  fitted  out, 
&c.  to  cany  on  the  slave  trade,  to  be  forfeited,  Sec.  (22d  March,  1794.) 

2.  Two  thousand  dollars  forfeit  for  persons  fitting  out  vessels,  or  aid- 
^  ing,  &c. 

3.  Owners,  &c.  of  foreign  vessels,  suspected  of  intention  to  trade  in 
slaves,  &.c.  to  give  bond,  Stc. 

4.  Forfeit  of  two  hundred  dollars  by  citizens,  for  every  person  received 
on  board  for  the  purpose  of  being  sold  as  a  slave,  &c.     A  moiety  to 
the  person  suing,  £c. 

5.  The  importation  of  slaves  into  the  Mississippi  territory  from  foreign 
parts  prohibited,  under  penalty  of  three  hundred  dollars  for  each 
one  ;  and  slaves  imported  entitled  to  freedom.     (7th  April,  1798.) 

6.  Citizens  or  residents  prohibited  from  holding  any  right  or  property 
in  vessels  employed  in  transporting  slaves  from  one  foreign  country 
to  another,  on  pain   of  forfeiting  their  right  of  property,  and  also 
double  the  value  of  that  right  in  money,  and  likewise  double  the  value 
of  the  interest  in  the  slaves. 

7.  Citizens  or  residents  not  to  serve  on  board  vessels  of  the  United  States 
employed  in  the  transportation  of  slaves  from  one  foreign  country 
to  another,  &c.  on  pain  of  fine  and  imprisonment,  Sec.  (10th  May,  1800.) 

8.  Citizens  voluntarily  serving  on  board  foreign  ships  employed  in  the 
slave  trade,  liable  to  disabilities,  penalties,  &c. 

9.  Commissioned  vessels  of  the  United  States  may  seize  vessels  employ 
ed  contrary  to  this  act,  &c. 

10.  Vessels  seized  for  trading  in  slaves,  contrary  to  this  act,  together 
with  tackle,  guns,  goods  on  board,  &c.  except  slaves,  forfeited,  &c. 

11.  Commanders  of  commissioned  vessels  to  take  officers  and  crews  of 
vessels  employed  contrary  to  this  act,  8tc.  into  custody,  &.c. 

12.  District  and  circuit  courts  to  have  cognizance  of  offences  against  the 
prohibitions  of  this  act. 

13.  Nothing  in  this  act  to  authorize  the  bringing  into  any  state  prohibit 
ed  persons. 

14.  A  moiety  of  forfeitures  to  informers,  except  where  the  prosecution 
is  first  instituted  on  behalf  of  the  United  States. 

15.  After  the  1st  of  April,  1803,  masters  of  vessels  not  to  bring  into  any 
port,  where  the  laws  of  a  state  prohibit  the  importation,  any  negro, 
mulatto,  &c.  not  a  native,  a  citizen,  registered  seaman,  &c.  under  the 
penalty  of  one  thousand  dollars.     (28th  Feb.  1803.) 

16.  The  persons  sued  under  this  act,  may  be  held  to  special  bail. 

17.  Nothing  in  this  act  to  prohibit  the  admission  of  Indians. 

18.  Vessels  arriving  with  negroes,  mulattoes,  or  other  prohibited  per 
sons  on  board,  not  to  be  admitted  to  entry,  &c. 

19.  If  any  negro,  Sec.  be  landed  in  any  prohibited  port  or  place,  Sic. 
the  vessel,  &c,  to  be  forfeited  :  A  moiety  of  the  forfeiture'  to  the  in 
former. 

20.  The  officers  of  the  customs  to  notice  and  be  governed  by,  the  laws 
of  states  prohibiting  the  admission  of  negroes,  &c.  swid  vigilantly  to 
carry  them  into  effect,  &e 

VOL.  L— S  s 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  ANft 

PARTI.    21.  The  importation  of  slaves  prohibited  after  the  1st  of  Januarf 
v^x-v^W      1808.     (2d  March,  1807.) 

22.  Vessels  fitted  out  or  sailing,  after  the  1st  of  January,  1808,  for  the 
purpose  of  transporting  slaves  to  any  port  or  place  within  the  jur  s- 
diction  of  the  United  Stales,  may  be  seized,  condemned,  &c.  in  any 
of  the  circuit  or  district  courts,  for  the  districts  where  the  vessels  m  \y 
be  found  or  seized. 

23.  Persons  fitting  out  vessels,  See.  to  be  employed  in  the  slave  trade, 
after  the  1st  of  January,  1808,  or  aiding  or  abetting,  8cc.  to  forfeit  se 
verally,  twenty  thousand  dollars.— A  moiety  of  the  forfeiture  to  the 
person  prosecuting. 

24.  Five  thousand  dollars  forfeit  for  taking  on  board  from  any  of  t.  ic 
coasts  or  kingdoms  of  Africa,  after  the  1st  of  January,  1808,  any  negi  o, 
mulatto,  &c.  for  the  purpose  of  selling  them  as  slaves  within  the  juris 
diction  of  the  United  States,  &c. — A  moiety  of  the  forfeiture  to  t.ie 
person  prosecuting,  &c. 

25.  Vessels  in  which  negroes,  &c.  have  been  transported,  their  tack  e> 
apparel,  &c.  to  be  forfeited,  &c. 

26.  Neither  the  importer,  nor  persons  claiming  under  him,  to  hold  a  iv 
right  to  any  negro,  &c.  brought  within  the  United  States,  &c.  in  v  o- 
lation  of  this  law,  but  such  negro,  &c.  to  remain  subject  to  the  regu 
lations  of  the  legislatures  of  the  several  states,  &c. 

27.  Citizens  or  residents  taking  on  board,  after  the  1st  of  January,  18(  8, 
from  the  coasts  or  kingdoms  of  Africa,  &c.  any  negro,  mulatto,  &.c. 
and  transporting  and  selling  them  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United 
States,  as  slaves,    &c.  to  suffer  imprisonment  from  Jive   to  ten  yea^s, 
and  pay  a  fine,  from  one  to  ten  thousand  dollars. 

28.  Forfeit  of  eight  hundred  dollars  for  selling  any  negro,  &c.  import/Hi 
from  any  foreign  kingdom,  &c.  after  the  31st  of  December,  1807,  &.c 
A  moiety  of  the  forfeiture  to  the  person  prosecuting,  &c. — The  for 
feiture  not  to  extend  to  the  seller  or  purchaser  of  any  negro,  &.c.  dis 
posed  of  by  virtue  of  any  regulations  of  the  legislatures  of  the  several 
states,  in  pursuance  of  this  act  and  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

29.  Vessels  found,  after  the  1st  of  January,  1808,  in  any  river,  port, 
bay,  &c.  within  the  jurisdictional  limits  of  the  United  States,  £.c. 
having  on  board  any  negro,  &c.  for  the  purpose  of  selling  them  as 
slaves,    &c.   to   be  forfeited,  together  with  their  tackle,  goods  on 
board,  &c. 

30.  The  president  may  employ  armed  vessels  to  cruizre  on  any  part  of 
the  coast  where  he  may  judge  attempts  will  be  made  to  violate  this 
act,  and  instruct  commanders  of  armed  vessels  to  seize  and  bring  in 
vessels  found  on  the  high  seas  contravening  the  provisions  of  this  law, 
&.c. — Masters  of  vessels  seized,  &.c.  liable  to  prosecution,  and  to  a 
fine,   not  exceeding  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  to  imprisonment  from 
tivo  to  four  years. — The  proceeds  of  vessels,  &c.  seized,  prosecuted, 
and  condemned,  to  be  divided  eqtially  between  the  United  States  and 
the  officers  and  men,  &c.  whether  of  the  navy  or  revenue  cutters,  and 
distributed  as  in  the  case  of  prizes,  Sec.     The  officers  and  men  thus 
entitled  are  to  safe  keep  every  negro,  mulatto,  &c,  and  deliver  them 
to  persons  appointed  to  receive  them,  &c. 

31.  Masters  of  vessels  of  less  than  forty  tons  burden,  not  to  take  on 
board,  after  the  1st  of  January,   1808,  nor  transport,  any  negro,  fee. 
to  «ny  port  or  place  whatever,  for  the  purpose  of  disposing  of  him  at> 
a  slave,  on  penalty  of  forfeiting  eight  hundred  dollars. — A  moiety  of 
the  forfeiture  to  the  person  prosecuting,  &c. — But  nothing  in  this 
section  to  prohibit  the  transporting,  on  any  river  or  inland  bay  of  the 
sea,  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  any  negro,  &.c.  not 
imported  contrary  to  the  provisions  of  this  act,  in  any  vessel  or  species 
of  craft  whatever. 


SLAVE  TRADE. 

32.  Masters  of  vessels,  of  the  burden  of  forty  tons  or  more,  after  the  1st  SECT.  IX. 
of  January,  1808,  sailing  coastwise,  Stc  and  having  on  board  any  negro,  ._^^^_. 
&c.  to  be  transported  and  sold  as  slaves,  &c.  to  make  out  and  subscribe 
duplicate  manifests  of  every  negro,  &c.  and  deliver  the  manifests  to 

the  collector  or  surveyor,  &c.  The  master,  owner,  &c.  to  swear  that 
the  persons  were  not  imported  after  the  1st  of  January,  1808,  &c. 
— The  collector  or  surveyor  to  certify,  Sic.  grant  a  permit  to  pro 
ceed,  &c. 

33.  Vessels  departing  without  the  master's  having  made  out  and  sub- 
scribed  duplicate  manifests  of  every  negro,  Sec.  on  board,  &c.  or  tak 
ing  on  board  any  other  negro,  &c.  than  those  specified  in  the  mani 
fests,  to  be  forfeited,  together  with  tackle,  apparel,  &c. 

34.  The  master,  &c.  to  forfeit  one  thousand  dollars  for  every  negro,  &c. 
transported,  Stc.  contrary  to  this  act. — A  moiety  of  the  forfeiture  to 
the  person  prosecuting,  &c. 

35.  The  master,  &c.  of  every  vessel  of  forty  tons  or  more,  sailing  coast 
wise  after  the  1st  of  January,  1808,  and  having  on  board  any  negro, 
&c.  to  sell,  &c.  arriving  in  one  port  of  the  United  States  from  another, 
to  deliver  the  certified  manifest,  &c.  and  swear  to  the  truth  of  it,  See. 
— If  the  collector,  &c.  is  satisfied,  &c.  he  is  to  grant  a  permit  for  the 
landing  of  the  negro,  &c. 

36.  Masters,  &c.  neglecting  or  refusing  to  deliver  the  manifests,  or  land 
ing  any  negro,   &c.  before  delivering  manifests,  &c.  to  forfeit  ten 
thousand  dollars. — A  moiety  of  the  forfeiture  to  the  person  prose 
cuting,  &c. 

It  is  seen  by  the  foregoing  abstract,  that  federal  America 
interdicted  the  trade  from  her  ports,  thirteen  years  before 
Great  Britain;  that  she  made  "  it  punishable  as  a  crime," 
seven  years  before;  that  she  fixed,  four  years  sooner, 
the  period  for  non-importation — which  period  was  earlier 
than  that  determined  upon  by  Great  Britain  for  her  colonies. 
We  ought  not  to  overlook  the  circumstance,  that  these  mea 
sures  were  taken,  by  a  legislature  composed  in  considerable 
part,  of  the  representatives  of  slave-holding  states;  slave 
holders  themselves,  in  whom,  of  course,  according  to  the  doc 
trine  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  conscience  had  "  suspended 
its  functions,"  and  u  justice,  gentleness,  and  pity"  were  ex 
tinguished.  What  are  we  to  think  of  the  British  parliament, 
which  suffered  itself  to  be  outstripped  thus  by  such  men?  and 
when  would  it  have  abolished  the  trade,  had  it  contained 
an  equal  proportion  of  slave-holders  from  the  West  In 
dies?* 

In  truth,  the  representatives  from  our  southern  states  have 
been  foremost  in  testifying  their  abhorrence  of  the  traffic;  au 
abhorrence  springing  from  a  deep  sense  not  merely  of  its  ini 
quity,  but  of  the  magnitude  of  the  evil  which  it  has  entailed 
upon  their  country.  It  was  only  at  the  last  session  of  the 

*  Mr.  Pitt  said  (1792)  that  the  "  Parliament  being  now  fully  convin 
ced  of  the  cruelty  and  injustice  of  the  slave  trade,  it  was  their  duty  to 
put  an  end  to  it.  Were  the  West  India  planters  to  be  consulted  they 
might  think  differently,"  &c.  (Parliamentary  History.) 


MEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PARTI.  American  Congress  (March  1st,  1819)  that  a  member  frcm 
^•^^^^^  Virginia  proposed  the  following  regulation,  to  which  t  ic 
House  of  Representatives  agreed  without  a  division. — u  Every 
person  who  shall  import  into  the  United  States,  or  knowingly 
aid  or  abet  the  importation  into  the  United  States,  of  any 
African  negro,  or  other  person,  with  intent  to  sell  or  use  such 
negro  or  other  person,  as  a  slave,  or  shall  purchase  any  such 
slave,  knowing  him  or  her  to  be  thus  imported,  shall,  on  coa- 
viction  thereof,  in  any  circuit  court  of  the  United  States,  be 
punished  with  death."  The  rarity  of  capital  punishment  in 
the  penal  code  of  the  United  States,  and  the  extreme  aver 
sion  from  a  recourse  to  it,  universally  prevailing,  make  this  i.i- 
stance  a  potent  proof,  of  the  sincerity  of  the  dispositions,  whi<  h 
we  profess  respecting  the  slave  trade.  Additional  evidence 
not  less  striking,  is  afforded  by  the  act  which  passed  and  be 
came  a  law  at  the  same  time,  and  of  which  the  printed  abstract 
is  as  follows: 

"  1.  An  act  in  addition  to  the  acts  prohibiting  the  slave 
trade.  (3d  March,  1819.) 

"The  president  may  employ  the  armed  vessels  of  the  United 
States  to  cruise  on  the  American  coast,  or  coast  of  Africa,  to 
enforce  the  acts  of  congress  prohibiting  the  slave  trade.  Ves 
sels  employed,  contrary  to  law,  in  the  Uaffic  of  slaves,  may  be 
seized  by  the  armed  vessels,  and  brought  into  port.  The  pro 
ceeds  to  be  equally  divided  between  the  United  States  and 
the  captors,  whether  by  an  armed  vessel  or  revenue  cutter. 
The  captors  to  safe  keep  and  deliver  the  negroes,  &c.  to  the 
marshal,  &c.  transmitting  a  descriptive  list  to  the  president; 
and  the  commanders  are  to  apprehend  every  person  found  on 
board  the  offending  vessels,  being  officers  and  crew,  and  deli 
ver  them  over  to  the  civil  authority.  The  president  to  make 
regulations  for  the  safe  keeping,  support,  and  removal  out  of 
the  United  States,  of  the  negroes,  &c.  delivered  and  brought 
withhi  their  jurisdiction,  and  may  appoint  agents  on  the  coast 
of  Africa,  to  receive  negroes,  &c.  A  bounty  of  twenty- 
five  dollars  to  the  officers  and  crews  of  commissioned  vessels 
and  revenue  cutters,  for  every  negro,  &c.  delivered  to  the 
marshal,  &c.  Prosecution,  by  information,  against  persons 
holding  negroes,  &c.  unlawfully  introduced.  Fifty  dollars  to 
informant  for  each  negro,  &c.  thus  delivered  to  the  marshal 
from  the  unlawful  holder,  by  judgment  of  the  court,  besides 
the  usual  penalties." 

6.  If  there  be  any  two  pieces  of  history  which  Great  Bri 
tain  should  wish  to  see  extinguished,  in  particular,  they  are 
the  accounts  of  tbe  African  slave  trade  itself,  and  of  her  abo 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


325 


Htion  of  that  trade.  Clarkson's  relation  of  the  Abolition  is  a  SECT.IX. 
memorial  which,  though  it  has  left  nothing  that  is  any  way  v-^v^~' 
creditable  in  the  progress  of  the  affair,  unemblazoned,  and 
magnifies  inordinately  the  lustre  and  utility  of  the  result,  still 
presents  a  balance  of  infamy,  which,  in  my  opinion,  renders 
it  desirable  that  the  whole  were  expunged,  for  the  honour  of 
human  nature.  The  enormity  of  the  system  of  crime  and 
cruelty  which  he  lays  open;  the  hardened  depravity  of  the 
sea-ports  which  he  visited;  the  pusillanimity  and  prevarica 
tion  of  witnesses;  the  effrontery  and  security  of  culprits;  the 
mean  and  wicked  arts  practised  by  the  highest  and  the  lowest 
of  the  kingdom,  to  defeat  his  purpose;  the  long  resistance  of 
parliament,  after  the  fullest  proof  of  the  facts;  the  tenor  of 
the  speeches  delivered  there  by  some  of  the  members  in  oppo 
sition;  and  many  other  similar  traits  salient  in  his  book,  are 
far  from  being  redeemed  by  the  act  of  abolition,  especially 
when  attention  is  given  to  some  of  the  grounds  upon  which 
it  was  obtained,  and  to  the  sequel,  which  I  propose  to  notice  in 
due  time.  We  Americans  would  trust  it  to  the  bitterest  ene 
my  of  these  States,  to  deduce  a  narrative  of  their  abolition  of 
the  traffic;  challenge  him  to  lay  on  what  colours  he  pleased; 
and,  provided  he  would  take  the  facts  as  his  ground  work,  re 
main  assured  that  while  the  world  possessed  Clarkson's  work, 
we  could  but  rise  in  its  estimation. 

As  a  general  proposition,  it  is  undeniable,  that  the  nation 
which  wrested  the  African  from  his  home,  and  sold  him  into 
perpetual  bondage,  is  as  criminal  at  least,  as  those  by  whom  he 
was  purchased,  and  who  may  have  retained  him  in  that  state: 
It  is  no  less  evident,  that  after  having  thrown  millions  of  ne 
groes  into  one  quarter  of  the  world,  and  reaped  the  profits  of 
the  horrible  traffic,  it  is  not  for  her  to  upbraid  the  purchasers 
for  using  their  bargain,  and  to  summon  them,  in  the  name  of 
justice,  humanity,  and  natural  rights,  to  relinquish  at  once 
their  hold,  at  whatever  loss  and  risk  to  themselves.  Yet  this 
is  what  is  done  towards  the  Americans,  by  the  writers  of  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  in  their  character  of  Britons,  and  upon  the 
foundation  of  the  British  abolition  of  the  slave  trade.  It  is 
therefore  fair  to  pass  in  review  the  facts  which  go  to  show, 
that  they  have  no  such  privilege,  but  are  obnoxious  to  the 
maxims  which  I  have  just  stated. 

The  English  embarked  in  the  slave  trade  in  the  year  1562. 
In  that  year  they  carried  slaves  to  Hispaniola;  and  the  first 
cargo  was  obtained  with  circumstances  of  abominable  fraud.* 

*  See  the  History  of  Hawkins's  Voyage  in  Hackluyt's  Collection,  or 
in  the  4th  Book,  c.  Vi.  of  Edwards's  History  of  the  West  Indies.  Haw- 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.  It  proved  lucrative,  and  immediately,  associations  were  forni- 
\^~v^s  ed  in  England,  among  the  most  opulent  and  distinguished  men 
of  the  country,  to  follow  up  the  adventure.  Soon,  the  obje ot 
began  to  be  considered  as  of  national  importance,  and  so  early 
as  the  16th  of  James  I.  a  royal  charter  was  granted  to  a  num 
ber  of  eminent  citizens  of  London,  as  a  joint  stock  company, 
to  carry  on  a  trade  to  Africa,  with  an  exclusive  privilege 
The  private  merchants,  envious  of  the  harvest  which  seemed 
to  await  the  company,  interloped  upon  the  African  coast,  and 
so  embarrassed  the  trade  that  the  charter  was  abandoned. 
Another  company  was  created  by  Charles  I.;  but  itshartd 
the  same  fate,  from  the  same  cause, — the  cupidity  aid 
misconduct  of  the  unlicensed  adventurers.  U0n  the  acces 
sion  of  Charles  II."  says  Davenant,*  "  a  representation  beii  g 
soon  made  to  him,  that  the  British  plantations  in  America 
were,  by  degrees,  advancing  to  such  a  condition  as  necessarily 
required  a  greater  yearly  supply  of  servants  and  labourers  than 
could  well  be  spared  from  England,  without  the  danger  of 
depopulating  his  majesty's  native  dominions,  his  majesty  did 
(upon  account  of  supplying  these  plantations  with  negroes)  pub 
licly  invite  all  his  subjects  to  the  subscription  of  a  new  joint 
stock,  for  recovering  and  carrying  on  the  trade  to  Africa. " 

His  majesty's  subjects  obeyed  the  call  with  alacrity;  and 
some  of  the  most  imposing  names  of  the  kingdom  appear  at 
the  head  of  the  ample  subscription  list.  But  poachers  swarm 
ed  again,  and  pleaded  their  natural  right,  and  parliament  found 
it  expedient,  in  1697,  to  lay  open  the  trade  for  a  term  of  years. 
The  recrimination  between  the  privileged  and  the  interloping 
traders,  unfolds  abuses  and  enormities  committed  before  the 
commencement  of  the  18th  century,  similar  to  those  which 
were  proved  to  parliament,  when  the  question  of  abolition 
was  agitated.  It  would  be  needless  for  me  to  detail  the  pro 
gress  of  the  African  trade  to  the  highest  consideration  and 
favour  with  the  government;  the  contest  maintained  with  the 
commercial  nations  of  the  continent  for  the  monopoly  of  that 

kins  was  afterwards  knighted  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  made  Treasurer 
of  the  Navy.  "  The  success  which  attended  the  first  expedition  to 
Guinea,"  says  Edwards,  "appears  to  have  attracted  the  notice  and  ex 
cited  the  avarice  of  the  British  government.  We  find  Hawkins  in  the 
following-  year,  appointed  to  the  command  of  one  of  the  queen's  ships, 
the  Jesus,  of  700  tons,  and  with  the  Solomon^  the  Tiger,  and  the  Swallow, 
sent  a  second  time  on  the  same  trading  expedition.  In  regard  to  Haw 
kins,  he  was,  I  admit,  a  Murderer  and  a  Robber.  His  avowed  purpose 
in  sailing  to  Guinea  was  to  seize  by  stratagem,  or  force,  and  carry  away 
the  unsuspecting  natives,  in  the  view  of  selling  them  as  slaves,  &c." 
*  Reflections  on  the  African  Trade,  vol.  v.  of  his  Works. 


SLAVE  TRADE.  327 

Irade,  and  the  successful  advances  made  to  this  "  consumma-  SECT.  IX. 
tion  of  wickedness."     Factories  were  formed  on  the  African  ^~v^-s 
coast;  forts  built;  grants  of  money  obtained  from  parliament** 
and  in  the  year  1792,  twenty-six  acts  of  that  body,  encou 
raging  and  sanctioning  the  trade,  could  be  enumerated  by  its 
friends. 

In  the  year  1689,  England  made  a  regular  convention  with 
Spain,  for  supplying  the  Spanish  West  Indies  with  negro  slaves 
from  the  island  of  Jamaica.  The  twelfth  article  of  the  treaty 
of  Utrecht  (1713)  "grants  to  her  Britannic  majesty  and  to 
the  company  of  her  subjects  appointed  for  that  purpose  (the 
South  Sea  Company) — as  well  the  subjects  of  Spain  as  all 
others  being  excluded — the  contract  for  introducing  negroes 
into  several  parts  of  the  dominions  of  his  Catholic  majesty  in 
America  (commonly  called  El  pacto  de  el  assiento  de  negros) 
at  the  rate  of  4,800  negroes  yearly,  for  the  space  of  thirty 
years  successively." 

To  this  compact  there  have  been  two  pointed  references  of 
late  in  the  British  parliament,  which  I  will  repeat  here  in  fur 
ther  explanation  of  its  character.  "  By  the  treaty  of  Utrecht," 
said  Mr.  Brougham  (16th  June,  1812)  "  which  the  execrations 
of  ages  have  left  inadequately  censured,  Great  Britain  was 
content  to  obtain,  as  the  whole  price  of  Ramillies  and  Blen 
heim,  an  additional  share  of  the  accursed  slave  trade." 

Mr.  C.  Grant,  jun.  said  (Feb.  9th,  1818)  "that  in  the  be 
ginning  of  the  last  century,  we  deemed  it  a  great  advantage  to 
obtain  by  the  Assiento  contract,  the  right  of  supplying  with 
slaves  the  possessions  of  that  very  power  which  we  were  now 
paying  for  abolishing  the  trade.  During  ihe  negociations  which 
preceded  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  we  higgled  for  four 
years  longer  of  this  exclusive  trade;  and  in  the  treaty  of  Ma 
drid,  we  clung  to  the  last  remains  of  the  Assiento  contract." 

By  degrees  the  English  merchants  engrossed  permanently 
two-thirds  of  the  whole  African  exportation,  and  became  the 
carriers  for  the  European  world.  They  either  supplied  the 
French  Islands  directly,  or  served  as  the  factors  of  the  French 
trader  on  the  coast  of  Africa.  They  occasionally  freighted 
their  ships  to  France,  to  be  manned  and  equipped  in  the 
French  ports.  They  stocked  Trinidad,  and  the  province  of 
Caraccas,  by  contract  with  the  Spanish  government;  and,  in 
the  years  1786  and  1788,  the  Havannah.  The  Philippine 

*  From  1739  to  1744,  it  annually  voted  to  the  African  company  10,000t7. 
sterling,  to  pay  their  dents;  in  1744,  the  grant  was  doubled  by  reason 
of  fche  war  with  France  and  Spain. 


328 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 


PARTI.  Company  of  Spain,  when  invested  with  the  privilege  of  in> 
^*~^^s  porting  slaves  into  South  America,  employed,  by  coutrac', 
British  vessels,  manned  by  British  seamen.  The  re-exporta 
tion  from  the  British  West  Indies,  for  double  profit,  was  so  for 
encouraged,  that  by  the  West  India  free  port  act  of  1766,  fo 
reign  vessels  were  allowed  to  carry  from  the  free  ports,  ne 
groes  imported  in  British  ships.  England  established  a  higher 
reputation  than  any  other  power  for  skill  in  the  managemei  t 
of  the  trade,  and  in  the  choice  and  preparation  of  the  articles 
of  barter.  Among  her  chief  exports  to  Africa  were  British 
spirits,  rum  and  brandy,  guns,  cutlasses,  and  ammunition.  Of 
three  millions  of  pounds  of  gunpowder,  which  she  exported  i  i 
one  year,  one  half  was  sent  to  the  West  Coast  alone;  and,  as  I 
have  already  had  occasion  to  remark,  several  thousand  persons 
were  exclusively  employed  in  Birmingham,  in  manufacturing 
guns  for  that  market.  In  a  Report  of  the  Board  of  Trade 
dated  1775,  stress  is  laid  upon  the  necessity  of  encouraging 
the  trade  of  fire-arms  to  Africa. 

England  employed  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hun 
dred  ships  in  the  slave  trade,  and  carried  off,  on  the  average, 
forty  thousand  negroes  annually;  at  times  one  .half  more, 
in  the  year.  In  1768,  the  number  which  she  took  from  tin; 
coast  between  Cape  Blanco  and  the  Rro  Congo,  reached 
59,400,  more  than  double  the  share  that  fell  to  all  the  other 
traders.  Mr.  Pitt  said,  in  1792,  that  Jamaica  had  imported 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  negroes  in  the  course  of  twenty 
years,  and  that  this  was  admitted  to  be  only  one-tenth  of  the 
traffic.  Mr,  Dundas  said,  on  the  same  occasion,  that,  "  ifi 
1791,  the  whole  British  importation  consisted  of  74,000,  not 
less  than  34,000  of  which  were  exported  for  the  service  oi' 
foreign  nations." 

The  Parliamentary  Report  of  1789,  on  the  slave  trade,, 
states,  that  the  whole  number  of  negroes  brought  to  Jamaica 
from  the  year  1655  to  1787,  amounted  to  676,276,  of  whom 
31,181  died  in  the  harbour,  from  the  noxious  quality  of  the 
drugs  employed  in  making  them  up  for  sale.  The  Edinburgh 
Review  made  the  following  statements  in  the  years  1805  and 
1806. 

"  Before  the  American  war,  the  Dutch  used  to  carry,  ii; 
their  own  bottoms,  from  Africa  to  Guiana,  ten  thousand  ne 
groes  annually;  and  it  is  proved,  by  papers  laid  before  par 
liament,  but  which,  we  believe,  have  not  yet  been  printed, 
that  this  importation  was  greatly  increased  during  the  lasl 
war,  when  those  possessions  were  in  the  hands  of  Great  Bri 
tain.  It  is  certainly  not  over-rating  its  present  amount,  tc 


SLAVE  TRADE* 


329 


estimate  the  yearly  supply  of  negroes  carried  <o  our  conquered  SECT.ix. 
colonies  at  fifteen  thousand, — about  one  half  the  supply  of  s-*rv-N»> 
our  own  islands,  which  is  the  subject  of  the  abolition  ques 
tion."* 

uThe  38,000  slaves  exported  annually  from  Africa  in  Bri 
tish  vessels,  are  only  in  a  small  proportion  destined  for  the  use 
of  the  colonies;  above  22,000  are  stated  by  the  friends  of  the 
trade  to  be  intended  for  the  foreign  settlements.  To  this  must 
be  added  a  large  number  of  slaves  carried  by  British  vessels 
under  cover  of  a  neutral  flag.  From  certain  documents  which 
we  have  had  an  opportunity  of  consulting,  we  cannot  estimate 
these  at  less  than  8000;  and  the  supply  of  the  conquered  co 
lonies  considerably  exceeds  10,000  annually."! 

Authority  is  to  be  found  for  much  higher  estimates  than 
these.  I  take  the  following  from  Anthony  Benezet's  Historical 
Account  of  the  Slave  Trade. 

"  In  a  book  printed  in  Liverpool,  called,  The  Liverpool 
Memorandum,  which  contains,  amongst  other  things,  an  ac 
count  of  the  trade  of  that  port,  there  is  an  exact  list  of  the 
vessels  employed  in  the  Guinea  trade,  and  of  the  number  of 
slaves  imported  in  each  vessel;  by  which  it  appears,  that  in 
the  year  1753,  the  number  imported  to  America  by  one  hun 
dred  and  one  vessels  belonging  to  that  port,  amounted  to  up 
wards  of  thirty  thousand,  and  from  the  number  of  vessels  em 
ployed  by  the  African  company,  in  London  and  Bristol,  we 
may,  with  some  degree  of  certainty,  conclude,  there  are  one 
hundred  thousand  negroes  purchased  and  brought  on  board 
our  ships  yearly  from  the  coast  of  Africa.  This  is  confirmed 
in  Anderson's  History  of  Trade  and  Commerce,  lately  print 
ed;  where  it  is  said,  "that  England  supplies  her  American 
colonies  with  negro  slaves,  amounting  in  number  to  above  one 
hundred  thousand  every  year."  When  the  vessels  are  full 
freighted  with  slaves,  they  sail  for  our  plantations  in  America, 
and  may  be  two  or  three  months  in  the  voyage,  during  which 
time,  from  the  filth  and  stench  that  is  among  them,  distem 
pers  frequently  break  out,  which  carry  off  commonly  a  fifth,  a 
fourth,  yea  sometimes  a  third  or  more  of  them:  so  that  taking 
all  the  slaves  together,  that  are  brought  on  board  our  ships 
yearly,  one  may  reasonably  suppose  that  at  least  ren  thousand 
of  them  die  on  the  voyage.  And  in  a  printed  account  of  the 
state  of  the  negroes,  in  our  plantations,  it  is  supposed  that  a 
fourth  part  more  or  less  die  at  the  different  islands,  in  what  is 

*  No.  13  f  No.  16. 

VOL.  I.— T  t 


330  KEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.  called  the  seasoning.  Hence  it  may  be  presumed,  that  at  ; 
^  moderate  compulation  of  slaves  who  are  purchased  by  oui 
African  merchants  in  a  year,  near  thirty  thousand  die  upon  tin 
voyage  and  in  the  seasoning.  Add  to  this,  the  prodigies 
number  who  are  killed  in  the  incursions  and  intestine  wars 
by  which  negroes  procure  the  number  of  slaves  wanted  U 
load  the  vessels." 

The  Edinburgh  Review  has  declared  that  England  is  the 
nation  which  "had  most  extensively  pursued  and  most  so 
lemnly  authorized  the  slave  trade;"  that  she  had  been  "  prin 
cipally  instrumental  in  barring  out  from  benighted  Africa  the 
blessings  of  Christianity  and  the  comforts  of  civilization;"  tha . 
it  is  she  who  had  u  checked  or  rather  blasted  in  its  bud  the 
improvement  of  the  African  continent."  The  same  strain  is 
familiar  in  the  speeches  of  Fox  and  Wilberforce.  The  latte: 
reminded  his  countrymen,  in  1814,  in  parliament,  that  they 
had  enjoyed  the  largest  share  of  the  guilty  profits  of  the  slave 
trade.  Mr.  Pitt  declared  in  1792,  that  parliament  ought  to 
consider  themselves  as  the  authors  of  it.  His  more  emphati 
cal  language  of  the  year  preceding  is  recorded  by  Clarkson— 
u  The  truth  is,  there  is  no  nation  in  Europe  which  has  plungec- 
so  deeply  into  this  guilt  as  Britain.  We  stopped  the  natural 
progress  of  civilization  in  Africa.  We  cut  her  off  from  the 
opportuniiy  of  improvement.  We  kept  her  down  in  a  state  oi' 
darkness,  bondage,  ignorance,  and  bloodshed.  We  have  there 
subverted  the  whole  order  of  nature;  we  have  aggravated  even 
natural  barbarity,  and  furnished  to  every  man  motives  foi 
committing  under  the  name  of  trade,  acts  of  perpetual  hostility 
and  perfidy  against  his  neighbour.  Thus  had  the  perversior- 
of  British  commerce  carried  misery  instead  of  happiness  tc 
one  whole  quarter  of  the  globe.  False  to  the  very  principles 
of  tradeT  unmindful  of  our  duty,  what  almost  irreparabk 
mischief  had  we  done  to  that  continent!  We  had  obtained  av 
yet  only  so  much  knowledge  of  its  productions  as  to  show,  that 
there  was  a  capacity  for  trade,  which  we  checked."  Thai 
capacity  was,  indeed,  checked,  not  incidentally  alone,  but 
directly;  for,  in  order  to  obviate  all  obstruction  to  the  slave 
trade,  pains  were  taken  to  prevent  the  Africans  from  culti 
vating  with  success,  the  staples  of  their  soil, — cotton,  tobacco, 
sugar,  and  indigo.  In  this  point,  the  English  were,  as  in  all 
others,  pre-eminently  culpable,  since  the  number  of  forts 
which  they  possessed  along  the  coast,  with  districts  round 
each  of  them,  afforded  them  better  means,  than  any  other 
European  nation  possessed,  of  giving  the  natives  a  taste  fo 
agriculture  and  the  true  objects  of  commerce, 


SLAVE  TRADE.  331 

7.  The  general  character  of  the  British  slave  trade  has  been  SECT  ix. 
so  pourtrayed  by  the  highest  and  ablest  men  of  the  British  ^^^~^f 
nation,  that  in  describing  it,  I  am  supplied,  in  their  language, 
with  the  strongest  which  I  could  wish  10  employ.  The  suffi 
ciency  of  the  following  testimony  will  hardly  be  questioned. 
In  the  Debate  on  the  Abolition  in  the  year  1792,  Mr.  Wil- 
berforce  said,  "  that  of  all  the  trades  that  disgraced  human 
beings,  this  was  the  very  worst.  In  others,  however  infa 
mous,  there  were  traits  of  something  like  humanity,  but  in 
this  there  was  a  total  absence  of  them.  It  was  a  scene  of  uni 
form,  unadulterated,  unsophisticated  wickedness;  never  was 
there  a  system  so  big  with  wickedness  and  cruelty."  In  the 
same  debate,  Mr.  Beaufoy  said — 

"  Who  does  not  recollect,  that,  by  the  evidence  which  the 
slave  merchants  themselves  have  given  at  your  bar,  it  appears, 
that  sucli,  on  board  an  African  vessel,  is  the  rate  of  mortality, 
that  if  the  march  of  death  were  the  same  in  the  xvorld  at 
large,  the  whole  human  race  would  be  extinguished  in  four 
teen  years,  and  the  earth  itself  be  converted  into  one  vast 
charnel  house.  Show  me  a  crime  of  any  sort,  and  in  the 
slave  trade  I  will  show  you  that  crime  in  a  state  of  tenfold 
aggravation.  Give  me  an  instance  of  guilt  atrocious  and  ab 
horred,  and  the  slave  trade  will  exhibit  instances  of  that  guilt, 
more  inveterate,  more  strongly  rooted  in  all,  diffusing  a  more 
malignant  poison,  and  spreading  a  deeper  horror.  All  other 
injustice,  all  other  modes  of  desolating  nature,  of  blasting  die 
happiness  of  man,  and  defeating  the  purposes  of  God,  lose,  in 
comparison  with  this,  their  very  name  and  character  of  evil. 
Their  taint  is  too  mild  to  disgust,  their  deformity  is  too  slight 
to  offend.  The  shrieks  of  solitary  murder;  what  are  they, 
when  compared  with  the  sounds  of  horror  that  daily  and 
nightly  ascend  from  the  hatchway  of  the  slave  ship!  I  have 
heard  of  the  cruelties  of  the  Inquisitions  of  Portugal  and  Spain; 
but  what  is  their  scanty  account  of  blood,  when  compared 
with  that  sweep  of  death,  that  boundless  desolation  which 
accompanies  the  negro  traffic!  Superstition  has  been  called 
man's  chief  destroyer:  but  superstition  herself  is  less  obdu 
rate,  less  persevering,  less  stedfast  in  her  cruelty,  than  this 
cool,  reflecting,  deliberate,  remorseless  commerce." 

In  the  debate  of  1807,  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  s'aid,  "The 
cruelty  and  injustice  of  the  slave  trade  had  been  established 
beyond  a  doubt.  It  had  been  shown  to  be  carried  on  by  ra 
pine  and  robbery  and  murder;  by  fomenting  and  encouraging 
wars;  by  false  accusations  and  imaginary  crimes.  The  un 
happy  victims  were  torn  away  not  only  in  the  time  of  war. 


332  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  i.  but  of  profound  peace.     They  were  then  carried  across  thr. 
v^-v-^/  Atlantic  in  a  manner  too  horrible  to  describe,  and  afterwards 
subjected  to  perpetual  slavery." 

Lord  Henry  Petty  said,  "  The  slave  trade  produced  in 
Africa,  fraud  and  violence,  robbery,  and  murder.  It  gave  birtL 
to  false  accusations  and  a  mockery  of  justice.  It  was  the 
parent  of  every  crime  that  could  at  once  degrade  and  afflici 
the  human  race.  After  spreading  vice  and  misery  all  over  a 
continent,  it  doomed  its  unhappy  victims  to  hardships  and 
cruelties  which  were  worse  than  death.  Cruelty  begat  cruelty 
the  system,  wicked  in  its  beginning,  was  equally  so  in  its  pro 
gress,"  &c. 

The  tone  of  the  Edinburgh  Reviewers  has  been  in  unisor 
with  that  of  the  eloquent  members  of  parliament.    They  have 
described  the  trade  as  "one  long  continuous  crime  involving 
every  possible  definition  of  evil;  combining  the  wildest  phy 
sical  suffering  with  the  most  atrocious   moral  depravity ;"  as 
one  "which  condemned  a  whole  quarter  of  the  world  to  un 
ceasing  and  ferocious  warfare;  which  annually  exterminated 
more  than  fell  during  the  bloodiest  campaigns  of  Europeai 
hostility;  which  regularly  transported  every  six  months,  ii 
circumstances  of  unparalleled  affliction,  more  innocent  persons 
than  suffer  in  a  century  from  the  oppression  of  all  the  tyran 
nies  in  the  world."     In  the  24th  number  of  the  Review,  r, 
picture  was  presented  so  hideous  and  so  faithful,  that  the  re 
collection  of  it  would  seem  sufficient  to  have  stayed  any  ham: 
from  hazarding,  in  the  same  frame,  a  comparison  between  tin 
humanity  of  England  and  that  of  any  other  nation,  in  refer 
ence  to  the  sons  of  Africa. 

"  The  history  of  the  slave  trade  is  the  history  of  a  war  oi' 
more  than  two  centuries,  waged  by  men  against  human  na 
ture;  a  war  too,  carried  on,  not  by  ignorance  and  barbarism 
against  knowledge  and  civilization;  not  by  half  famished 
multitudes  against  a  race  blessed  with  all  the  arts  of  life,  an<< 
softened  and  effeminated  by  luxury;  but,  as  some  strange  non 
descript  in  iniquity,  waged  by  unprovoked  strength  againsf: 
uninjuring  helplessness,  and  with  all  the  powers  which  long 
periods  of  security  and  equal  Jaw  had  enabled  the  assailants 
to  develop, — in  order  <o  make  barbarism  more  barbarous, 
and  to  add  to  the  want  of  political  freedom  the  most  dreadful 
and  debasing  personal  suffering.  Thus  all  the  effects  and  in 
fluences  of  freedom  were  employed  to  enslave;  the  gifts  of 
knowledge  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  illumination;  and 
powers,  which  could  not  have  existed  but  in  consequence  of 
morality  and  religion,  to  perpetuate  the  sensual  vices,  and  to 


SLAVE  TRADE. 

ward  off  the  emancipating  blo\v  of  Christianity;  and,  as  if  SECT. IX. 
this  were  not  enough,  positive  laws  were  added  by  the  best  ^^•-~^~' 
and  freest  nation  of  Christendom,  and  powers  entrusted  to  the 
basest  part  of  its  population,  for  purposes  which  would  almost 
necessarily  make  the  best  men  become  the  worst." 

8.  However  strong  these  general  representations,  they  are 
more  than  confirmed,  by  the  details  of  which  the  world  had 
the  fullest  proof.  It  was  remarked  with  great  truth  by  Mr. 
William  Smith  in  the  debate  of  1792,  in  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  that  numberless  facts  had  been  related  by  eye  witnesses, 
to  Parliament,  so  dreadfully  atrocious,  that  the  very  magni 
tude  of  the  crimes  rendered  them  incredible  to  others.  I  will 
select  some  of  the  particular  features  in  the  character  of  the 
trade,  and  a  few  of  the  single  incidents,  as  they  were  related 
in  Parliament,  upon  such  evidence  as  no  longer  to  admit  of 
contradiction.  Mr.  Wilberforce  said,  "  it  was  well  known 
that  it  was  customary  to  set  fire  to  whole  villages  in  Africa, 
for  the  purpose  of  throwing  the  inhabitants  into  confusion,  and 
taking  them  as  they  fled  from  the  flames.  Every  possible, 
fraud  was  put  in  practice  to  deceive  the  ignorance  of  the  na 
tives,  by  false  weights  and  measures,  adulterated  commodi 
ties,  and  other  impositions  of  the  sort." 

"  On  the  windward  coast  an  agent  was  sent  to  establish  a 
settlement  in  the  interior  country,  and  to  send  down  to  the 
ships  such  slaves  as  he  might  be  able  to  obtain;  the  orders  he 
received  from  his  captain  were  a  very  model  of  conciseness 
and  perspicuity;  '  he  was  to  encourage  the  chieftains,  by 
brandy  and  gunpowder,  to  go  to  war,  and  make  slaves.5  He 
punctually  performed  his  part,  the  chieftains  were  not  back 
ward  on  theirs;  the  neighbouring  villages  were  ransacked, 
being  surrounded  arid  set  on  fire  in  the  night;  their  inhabitants 
were  seized  when  making  their  escape,  and  being  brought  to 
the  agent,  were  by  him  forwarded,  men,  women,  and  chil 
dren,  to  his  principal  on  the  coast.  Mr.  How,  a  botanist, 
who,  in  the  service  of  government,  visited  that  country  with 
captain  Thomson,  gave  in  evidence,  that  being  at  one  of  the 
subordinate  settlements  on  the  Gold  Coast,  on  the  arrival  of 
an  order  for  slaves  from  Cape  Coast  Castle,  the  native  chief 
immediately  sent  forth  his  armed  parties,  who,  in  the  night, 
brought,  in  a  supply  of  all  descriptions,  and  the  necessary  as 
sortment  was  next  day  sent  off,  according  to  the  order.  The 
wide  extent  of  the  African  coast  furnished  but  one  uniform  de 
tail  of  similar  instances  of  barbarity." 

"  The  exciting  of  wars,"  added  the  same  speaker,  "  be 
tween  neighbouring  states,  is  almost  the  slightest  of  the  evils 


334  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

TART  I.  Africa  is  doomed  to  suffer  from  this  trade.  Still  more  inlo- 
^-*~v-«^  lerable  are  those  acts  of  outrage  which  we  are  continually  sti 
mulating  the  kings  to  commit  on  their  own  subjects.  A 
chieftain,  to  procure  the  articles  for  the  gratification  of  appe 
tites  which  we  have  diligently  and  too  successfully  taught 
them  to  indulge,  being  too  weak  or  too  timid  to  attack  his 
neighbours,  sends  a  party  of  soldiers  by  night  to  one  of  his 
own  defenceless  villages;  they  set  fire  to  it,  and  hurry  the  in 
habitants  to  the  ships  of  the  traders,  who,  hovering  like  vul 
tures  over  these  scenes  of  carnage,  are  ever  ready  for  their 
prey.  We  are  perpetually  told  of  villages  half  consumed, 
and  bearing  every  mark  of  recent  destruction.  Whitherso 
ever  a  man  goes,  be  it  to  the  watering  place  or  to  the  field,  he 
is  not  safe.  He  can  never  quit  his  house  without  fear  of 
being  carried  off  by  fraud  or  by  force.  When  the  chieftains 
are  going  up  the  country  to  make  war  in  order  to  procure 
slaves,  they  are  supplied  with  muskets  and  cutlasses  by  llu: 
traders." 

Mr.  Pitt  said  on  the  same  occasion — "  Can  we  hesitate  in 
deciding  whether  the  wars  in  Africa  ore  their  wars  or  ours. 
It  was  our  arms  in  the  river  Cameroon  put  into  the  hands  oi 
the  negro  trader,  that  furnished  him  with  the  means  of  push 
ing  his  trade,  and  I  have  no  more  doubt  they  are  British  arms 
put  into  the  hands  of  Africans,  which  promote  universal  war 
and  desolation,  than  I  can  doubt  of  their  having  done  so,  in 
that  individual  instance." 

,  .  Mr.  Wilberforce  related  that  in  the  year  1789,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  river  Cameroon,  the  master  of  a  Liver 
pool  ship  of  the  name  of  Bibby,  fraudulently  carried  off  thirty- 
two  relations  of  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  country,  who  had  been 
iut  on  board  as  pledges  for  goods:  and  to  illustrate  the  fami- 
iarity  of  the  practice,  he  quoted  the  following  anecdote 
u  When  General  Rooke  commanded  in  his  majesty's  settle 
ment  at  Goree,  some  of  the  subjects  of  a  neighbouring  king, 
with  whom  he  was  on  terms  of  amity,  came  to  pay  him  a 
friendly  visit;  there  were  from  100  to  150  of  them,  men,  wro~ 
men,  and  children;  all  was  gaiety  and  merriment,  it  was  ;< 
scene  to  gladden  the  saddest,  and  to  soften  the  hardest 
heart:  but  a  slave  captain,  ever  faithful  to  the  interest  of  his 
employers,  is  not  so  soon  thrown  off  his  guard;  with  what 
astonishment  would  the  House  hear,  that  in  the  midst  of  this 
festivity,  it  was  proposed  to  general  Rooke  to  seize  the  whole 
of  this  unsuspecting  multitude,  hurry  them  on  board  the  ships, 
and  carry  them  off  to  the  West  Indies.  It  was  not  merely  one 
man,  but  three,  who  were  bold  enough  to  venture  on  such  i» 


SLAVE  TRADE.  335 

proposal.  Three  English  slave  captains  preferred  it  as  their  SECT.IX. 
joint  request,  alleging  the  precedent  of  a  former  governor,  who  ^^^^^ 
in  a  similar  case,  had  consented!™  &c. 

One  more  of  the  numberless  authenticated  occurrences  of 
this  nature,  will  suffice.  u  Mr.  Wilberforce  said  that  these 
enormities  were  increasing;  for,  no  longer  ago  than  last  Au 
gust,  (1791)  when  that  House  was  debating  on  the  subject  of 
this  very  trade,  six  British  vessels  had  anchored  off  the  town 
of  Calabar,  in  Africa,  a  town  which  seemed  devoted  to  mis 
fortune.  It  appeared,  from  the  report,  that  the  natives  had 
raised  the  price  of  slaves.  The  captains  consulting  together, 
agreed  to  fire  on  the  town,  to  compel  them  to  lower  the  price 
of  their  countrymen.  To  heighten,  if  possible,  the  shame  of 
this  .proceeding,  they  were  prevented  for  some  time,  from 
effecting  their  purpose,  by  the  presence  of  a  French  captain, 
who  refused  to  join  in  their  measures,  and  purchased  at  the 
high  price  which  had  been  put  upon  the  slaves." 

u  However,  in  the  morning  they  commenced  a  fire  which 
lasted  for  three  hours.  During  the  consternation,  the  wretch 
ed  inhabitants  were  seen  making  their  escape  in  every  direc 
tion.  In  the  evening,  the  attack  was  renewed,  which  con 
tinued  until  they  agreed  to  sell  their  slaves  at  the  price  stipu 
lated  by  the  captains.  In  this  attack  upwards  of  twenty  per 
sons  were  destroyed." 

The  situation  of  the  slaves  on  board  ship,  or  what  is  com 
monly  called  the  middle  passage,  even  surpassed  in  horror  the 
depravity  and  cruelty  exhibited  in  the  original  acquisition. 
Lord  Grenville  declared  in  1806,  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
"  that  in  the  transportation  of  the  negroes,  there  was  a  greater 
portion  of  misery  condensed  within  a  smaller  space,  than  had 
ever  existed  in  the  known  world.     This  he  had  said  on  a  for 
mer  occasion,  and  would  repeat."     Mr  Fox  observed,  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  that  "  the  acts  of  barbarity,  proved  upon 
the  slave  captains  in  the  course  of  the  voyages,  were  so  extra 
vagant  that  they  had  been  attributed  to  insanity."    The  single 
instance  of  the  British  ship  Zong,  in  1781,  from  which  the 
captain  threw  into  the  sea  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  slaves, 
alive,  in  order  to  defraud  the  underwriters  in  England,  gives  a 
truly  demoniac  character  to  the  temper  and  conduct  of  the 
commanders  of  the  slave  ships.    The  assertion  of  Lord  Gren 
ville,  just  quoted,  would  seem  to  be  warranted  by  the  facts 
which  were  in  undeniable  evidence  before  the  committees  of 
Parliament.    With  respect  to  the  middle  passage — apart  from 
the  administration  of  the  sbijrs  officers,  still  more  barbarous, 
than  the  situation  was  deplorable, — the  principal  features  of 


330  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.  it  arc  these,  according  to  the  testimony  of  witnesses  produced 

v^v^s.x  on  the  side  of  the  trade. 

Every  slave,  whatever  his  size  might  be,  had  only  five  feet 
six  inches  in  length,  and  sixteen  inches  in  breadth,  to  lie  in. 
The  floor  was  covered  with  bodies  stowed  or  packed  accord 
ing  to  this  allowance.  But  between  the  floor  and  (he  deck  or 
ceiling  were  platforms,  or  broad  shelves,  in  the  midway,  which 
were  covered  with  bodies  also.  The  height  from  the  floor  to 
the  ceiling,  within  which  space  the  bodies  on  the  floor  and 
those  on  the  platforms  lay,  seldom  exceeded  five  feet  two 
inches,  and  in  some  cases  it  did  not  exceed  four  feet. 

The  men  were  chained,  two  and  two  together,  by  their 
hands'  and  feet,  and  were  chained  also  by  means  of  ring-bolts, 
which  were  fastened  to  the  deck.  They  were  confined  in  this 
manner  at  least  all  the  time  they  remained  upon  the  coast, 
which  was  from  six  weeks  to  six  months,  as  it  might  happen 
Their  allowance  consisted  of  one  pint  of  water  a  day  to  each 
person,  and  they  were  fed  twice  a  day  with  yams  and  horse- 
beans.  Instruments  were  kept  on  board  to  force  them  to  eat, 
when  sulky. 

After  meals,  they  jumped  up  in  their  irons  for  exercise. 
This  was  so  necessary  for  their  health  that  they  were  whipped 
if  they  refused  to  do  it,  and  often  danced  thus  under  the  lash, 
They  were  usually  fifteen  or  sixteen  hours  below  deck  out  of 
twenty-four.  In  rainy  weather  they  could  not  be  brought  up 
for  two  or  three  days  together.  If  the  ship  was  full,  their 
situation  was  then  inexpressibly  distressing.  They  drew  their 
breath  with  anxious  and  laborious  efforts.  Thus  crammed 
together,  some  died  of  suffocation,  and  the  filth  and  noisome- 
ness  occasioned  putrid  and  fatal  disorders;  so  that  the  officers 
who  inspected  them  in  a'morning,  had  occasionally  to  pick  dead 
slaves  out  of  their  rows,  and  to  unchain  their  carcases  from 
the  bodies  of  their  fellow-sufferers,  to  whom  they  were  fas 
tened. 

The  scenes  and  practices  in  the  next  stage  of  the  sacrifice, 
— the  sale  in  the  West  India  port, — rivalled  those  of  the 
transportation.  The  slaves  who  survived  the  passage,  fro 
quen'ly  arrived  in  a  sickly  and  disordered  state,  and  then  they 
were  made  up  for' the  market,  by  the  means  of  astringents,, 
washes,  mercurial  ointments,  and  repelling  drugs,  so  that 
their  wounds  and  diseases  might  be  hid.  Many  people  in  the 
islands,  in  Jamaica  particularly,  were  accustomed  to  speculate 
in  the  purchase  of  those  who  were  left  after  the  first  day's 
sale.  They  then  carried  them  out  into  the  country,  and  re 
tailed  them  there.  A  most  respectable  witness  declared  theft 


SLAVE  TRADE.  337 

he  had  seen  these  landed  in  a  very  wretched  state,  sometimes  SECT.  IX, 
in  the  agonies  of  death,  and  sold  as  low  as  a  dollar,  and  that  v^v-^/ 
he  had  known  several  to  expire  in  the  piazzas  of  the  vendne- 
master. 

9.  In  the  list  of  the  evils  and  atrocities  accompanying  this 
trade,  one  of  the  most  certain  and  shocking,  was  the  extensive 
mortality,  independent  of  that  inseparable  from  the  wars  and 
devastations  in  Africa,  to  which  it  gave  rise.  We  read  in 
Macpherson's  Annals,  that  the  whole  number  of  negroes  de 
livered,  fell  short  of  the  number  shipped,  twenty  or  thirty  per 
cent;  that  in  Jamaica,  if  fifteen  out  of  twenty  new  negroes 
bought,  were  alive  at  the  end  of  three  years,  the  purchaser  was 
thought  very  lucky.  We  are  told  by  the  Edinburgh  Review 
(No.  8)  that  upon  an  average  no  less  than  seventeen  in  an 
hundred  died  before  they  were  landed,  and  that  there  was  a 
further  loss  of  thirty-three  in  the  seasoning,  arising  chiefly 
from  diseases  contracted  during  the  voyage.  u  Of  the  Afri 
cans,"  says  Dr.  Dickson,  in  his  Mitigation  of  Slavery,  "  above 
one-fourth  perished  on  the  voyage  to  the  West  Indies;  and  4| 
per  cent,  more,  being  nearly  the  annual  mortality  of  London, 
died  on  an  average,  in  the  fortnight  intervening  between  the 
day  of  entry  and  sale.  To  close  this  awful  triumph  of  the  king 
of  terrors,  between  one-third  and  one-half,  or  about  two  in  five 
were  lost  in  "  the  seasoning,"  within  the  three  first  years." 
The  representations  of  Mr.  Wilberforce  on  this  head  were  never 
invalidated,  and  are  as  follows.  "  It  would  be  found,"  he 
said,  u  upon  an  average  of  all  the  ships,  upon  which  evidence 
had  been  given,  that,  exclusively  of  such  as  perished  before 
they  sailed  from  Africa,  not  less  than  twelve  and  a  half  per 
cent,  died  on  their  passage;  besides  these,  the  Jamaica  report 
stated,  that  four  and  a  half  per  cent,  died  while  in  the  har 
bours,  or  on  shore,  before  the  day  of  sale,  which  was  only 
about  the  space  of  twelve  or  fourteen  days  after  their  arrival 
there,  and  one-third  more  died  in  the  seasoning,  and  this  in  a 
climate  exactly  similar  to  their  own,  in  which  they  were  ac 
knowledged  to  be  healthy.  Thus  out  of  every  lot  of  one  hun 
dred  shipped  from  Africa,  seventeen  died  in  about  nine  weeks, 
and  not  more  than  fifty  lived  to  become  effective  labourers  in 
our  islands." 

Mr.  Wilberforce  adduced,  on  another  occasion,  upon  the 
authority  of  indisputable  evidence,  some  cases  of  particular 
mortality,  of  which  I  will  transcribe  his  relation,  because  it 
brings  into  view  additional  attributes  of  the  trade. 

"It  was  no  longer  ago  than  in  the  vear  1788,  that  Mr. 
VOL.  I.— -U  u 


358  NEGRO  SLAVEHY  AND 

PART  I.  Isaac  Wilson,  whose  intelligent  and  candid  manner  of  giving 
^*N<>»*'  his  evidence,  could  not  but  impress  the  committee  with  a  high 
opinion  of  him,  was  doomed  to  witness  scenes  as  deeply  dis 
tressing  as  almost  ever  occurred  in  the  annals  of  the  slav 
trade." 

"His  ship  was  a  vessel  of  three  hundred  and  seventy  tons, 
and  she  had  on  board  six  hundred  and  two  slaves,  a  number 
greater  than  we  at  present  allow,  but  rather  less,  I  think,  than 
what  was  asserted  by  the  slave  merchants  to  be  necessary,  in 
order  to  carry  on  their  trade  to  any  tolerable  profit.  Out  ci 
these  six  hundred  and  two  she  lost  one  hundred  and  fifty-five . 
I  will  mention  the  mortality  also  of  three  or  four  more  vessels  , 
which  were  in  company  with  her,  and  belonged  to  the  same 
owner.  One  of  them  brought  four  hundred  and  fifty,  ani 
buried  two  hundred;  another  brought  four  hundred  and  sixtj- 
six,  and  buried  seventy-three;  another  brought  five  hundred 
and  forty-six,  and  buried  one  hundred  and  eighty-eight:  be 
sides  one  hundred  and  fifty-five  from  his  own  ship,  his  num 
ber  being  six  hundred  and  two;  and  from  the  whole  four, 
after  the  landing  of  their  cargoes,  there  died  two  hundred  ami 
twenty.  He  fell  in  with  another  vessel,  which  lost  three 
hundred  and  sixty-two:  the  number  she  had  brought  was  net 
specified.  To  thes«  actual  deaths,  during  and  immediately 
after  the  voyage,  and  the  subsequent  loss  in  what  is  called 
the  seasoning,  I  consider  that  this  loss  would  be  greater  than 
ordinary  in  cargoes  landed  in  so  sickly  a  state.  Why,  sir, 
were  such  a  mortality  general,  it  would,  in  a  few  months,  de 
populate  the  earth.  We  asked  the  surgeon  the  causes  of  these 
excessive  losses,  particularly  on  board  his  own  ship,  where  he 
had  it  in  his  power  to  ascertain  them.  The  substance  of  his 
reply  was,  that  most  of  the  slaves  appeared  to  labour  under  a 
fixed  dejection  and  melancholy,  interrupted  now  and  then 
by  lamentations  and  plaintive  songs,  expressive  of  their  con 
cern  for  the  loss  of  their  relations  and  friends  and  native 
country.  So  powerfully  did  this  operate,  that  many  attempted 
various  ways  of  destroying  themselves;  some  endeavoured  to 
drown  themselves,  and  three  actually  effected  it;  others  obsti 
nately  refused  to  take  sustenance,  and  when  the  whip  and 
other  violent  means  were  used  to  compel  them  to  eat,  they 
looked  up  in  the  face  of  the  officer,  who  unwillingly  executed 
this  painful  task,  and  said,  in  their  own  language,  4  Presently 
we  shall  be  no  more.'  Their  state  of  mind  produced  a  ge 
neral  state  of  languor  and  debility,  which  were  increased,  in 
many  instances,  by  an  unconquerable  abstinence  from  food, 
arising  partly  from  sickness,  partly,  to  use  the  language  of 


SLAVE  TRADE.  339 

slave  captains,  from   'sulkiness.'      These  causes  naturally  SECT  IX. 
produced  the  dysentery;  the  contagion  spread,  numbers  were  ^.x-v^w 
daily  carried  off,  and  the  disorder,  aided  by  so  many  powerful 
auxiliaries,  resisted  all  the  force  of  medicine. 

"  The  ship  in  which  Mr.  Claxton,  the  surgeon,  sailed,  since 
the  regulating  act,  afforded  a  repetition  of  all  the  same  horrid 
circumstances  I  have  before  alluded  to.  Suicide,  various 
ways,  was  attempted  and  effected,  and  the  same  barbarous 
expedients  were  resorted  to,  in  order  to  compel  them  to  con 
tinue  an  existence  too  painful  to  be  endured:  the  mortality 
also  was  as  great" 

10.  Bryan  Edwards,  in  his  History  of  the  West  Indies,* 
computes  the  total  import  of  negroes,  in  British  vessels,  into 
all  the  British  colonies  of  America  and  the  West  Indies,  from 
1 680  to  1 786,  at  2, 1 30,000,  being  on  an  average  of  the  whole, 
20,095  annually.  He  acknowledges  that  this  estimate  "  is 
much  less  than  is  commonly  supposed,"  and  that  he  had  not 
ic  sufficient  materials  to  enable  him  to  furnish  an  accurate 
statement."  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  is  far  short  of  the 
peal  number.  It  is  calculated,  as  we  have  seen,  by  Ander 
son,  that  the  annual  British  export  from  Africa  was  one  hun 
dred  thousand,  and  the  annual  mortality  twenty  thousand. 
Mr.  Long  confesses,  in  his  History  of  Jamaica,  that  twenty- 
seven  thousand  were  imported  into  that  island  in  two  years  and 
an  half;  and  Mr.  Edwards  puts  down  the  Jamaica  importa 
tion  at  one-third  of  the  whole.  The  Dutch  colonies  of  De- 
merara,  Guiana,  and  Berbice  fell  into  the  hands  of  Great 
Britain  in  1797:  and  immediately  called  for  a  great  number 
of  negroes,  having  been  prevented  from  supplying  themselves 
during  the  war.  It  is  averted  in  the  Edinburgh  Review 
(No.  24)  that  the  British  slave  trade  then  rose  to  fifty-seven 
thousand,  and  continued  at  that  standard  for  eight  years;  that 
is,  until  1805,  when  the  importation  into  the  Dutch  colonies 
was  terminated  by  an  order  in  council,  to  appease  the  jealou 
sies  and  clamours  in  the  old  islands. 

Taking  the  data  which  the  statements  quoted  in  the  preced 
ing  pages  afford,  I  should  not  certainly  transcend  the  mark,  if  I 
added  ten  thousand  to  the  average  of  Edwards.  If  we  state  it, 
in  round  numbers,  at  thirty  thousand,  we  shall  have,  for  the  one 
hundred  and  six  years,  three  millions  one  hundred  and  eighteen 
thousand  negroes  imported  into  the  British  possessions  alone. 
But  to  have  the  whole  number  which  Great  Britain  obtained 

*  B.  IV.  c.2. 


340  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  i.  from  Africa,  we  must  bring  into  (he  account  those  whom  she 
<-^-v-*w  procured  antecedent  to  the  year  1080,  and  after  the  year  178t>: 
those  whom  she  imported  directly  into  the  foreign  possessions 
under  her  contracts,  and  otherwise;  and  also,  those  who  perish 
ed  on  her  hands  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  in  the  transportation. 
The  aggregate  of  her  immediate  prey  must  have  exceeded  sis 
millions,  and  we  may  rate  the  direct  mortality  for  which  she  is 
answerable,  at  two  millions,  for  the  century  of  the  trade  pre 
ceding  the  abolition.*  If  we  call  to  mind,  besides,  the  general 
physical  suffering  undergone  by  the  survivors,  before  they 
reached  their  ultimate,  most  calamitous  lot;  the  mental  agony 
implied  in  their  divulsion  from  their  native  soil  and  the  bonds 
of  kindred  and  friendship;  we  must  stand  aghast  at  the  accouni 
of  crime  which  remained  open  against  the  British  nation  at 
the  time  of  the  abolition.  In  addition  to  the  items  mentioned, 
those  are  of  no  small  moment  which  are  suggested  in  Mr 
Pitt's  apostrophe  to  the  House  of  Commons.  "  Do  you  think 
nothing  of  the  ruin  and  the  miseries  in  which  so  many  othei 
individuals,  still  remaining  in  Africa,  are  involved,  in  conse 
quence  of  carrying  off  so  many  myriads  of  people?  Do  you 
think  nothing  of  their  families  which  are  left  behind;  of  the 
connexions  which  are  broken;  of  the  friendships,  attachments, 
and  relationships  that  are  burst  asunder?  Do  you  think  nothing 
of  the  miseries,  in  consequence,  that  are  felt  from  generation 
to  generation,  of  the  privation  of  that  happiness  which  might 
be  communicated  to  them  by  the  introduction  of  civilization, 
and  of  mental  and  moral  improvement?" 

From  the  foregoing  exposition,  it  may  be  asserted,  with 
confidence,  that  the  British  slave  trade  caused  immediately, 
during  the  two  centuries  of  its  legal  prosecution,  the  destruc 
tion  of  more  negroes  than  have  existed,  altogether,  in  North 
America,  since  the  first  settlement.  The  leaders  of  the  abo 
lition,  the  Pitts,  the  Foxes,  the  Horsleys,  did  not  hesitate  to 
bestow  upon  that  destruction  the  most  fearful  of  epithets. 
a  What  is  it,"  exclaimed  Lord  Grenville,  u  but  murder  to 


*  This  is  much  below  the  calculations  of  her  own  writers.  "The 
number,"  says  one  of  these,  "  of  slaves  which  the  ships  profess  to 
take  is  not  an  exact  criterion  of  the  number  actually  taken.  The  pub- 
lie  number  does  not  include  the  quota,  allowed  to  the  respective 
officers  of  the  ship ;  nor  do  the  owners  confine  themselves  to  any  exact 
number,  if,  on  the  arrival  of  the  ship  in  Africa,  the  commodity  is 
cheaper  than  they  expected."  For  obvious  reasons,  the  mortality  ot 
the  negroes  in  the  transportation  would  not  be  disclosed  in  all  its  ex 
tent.  The  number  smuggled  by  the  British  into  the  Spanish  posses 
sions,  while  they  enjoyed  the  assicnto,  was  not  inconsiderable. 


SLAVE  TRADE.  341 

pursue  a  practice  which  produced  annually  untimely  death  to  SECT.  ix. 
thousands  of  innocent  and  helpless  beings!"     Now,  I  wrould  v-^^w 
ask,  which  it  is,  the  Briton  or  the  American,  that  can,  with 
most  propriety,  be  stigmatized,  nationally,  as  "  a  murderer 
of  slaves?" 

If  we  admitted  as  true  all  that  the  British  writers  have  re 
lated  of  the  condition  and  treatment  of  the  slaves  in  this 
country,  we  could  yet  defy  them  to  make  out  an  amount  of 
injustice,  and  suffering,  and  cruelty,  in  any  way  equal  to  that 
which  they  have  charged  and  proved  upon  their  African  trade. 
In  portentous  individual  instances  of  inhuman  conduct,  whe 
ther  as  to  enormity  or  multitude,  that  trade  far  outstrips  the 
North  American  negro  slavery;  the  history  of  which  presents, 
indeed,  no  authenticated  case  of  barbarity  which  does  not  ap 
pear  almost  venial,  in  the  comparison  with  the'monstrous  pro 
ceedings  consigned  in  the  parliamentary  minutes  of  evidence. 

1 1 .  The  thirst  of  gain  and  the  ambition  of  commercial  su 
premacy,  which  engaged  and  animated  the  British  people  and 
government  in  this  detestable  traffic,  inspired  them  with  the 
aim  of  monopolizing  every  market  for  human  flesh.  The 
cargo  of  negroes  was  carried  with  equal  readiness  to  Caraccas 
or  to  Jamaica,  to  Pennsylvania  or  to  Guiana.  No  discrimi 
nation  was  made  as  to  the  character  of  the  masters  to  whose 
absolute  will  they  were  to  be  consigned,  or  to  the  nature  of 
the  climate  or  the  toil,  which  they  were  to  undergo.  The 
French  and  the  Spaniards  had,  like  ourselves,  their  full  share 
of  obloquy  from  the  English  traveller,  on  account  of  the  seve 
rity  of  their  rule  over  the  very  slaves  whom  the  English  trader 
had  sold  to  them;  and  the  French  and  Spanish  character 
stood  degraded,  on  the  same  account,  in  elaborate  contrasts 
with  the  British,  when  the  French  and  Spanish  ports  were 
crowded  with  British  slave  ships,  and  the  British  ministers 
struggling  for  the  prolongation  of  the  Assiento-contract. 

Doubtless,  Great  Britain  was  answerable  for  the  fate  of  the 
whole  number  of  beings  whom  she  delivered  over  to  perpe 
tual  bondage  in  this  hemisphere;  knowing  the  temper  and 
habits  of  the  Spanish  and  French  planters,  she  partook  in  the 
guilt  of  their  excesses  of  cruelty  towards  the  slaves  whom 
they  had  received  from  her  ships.  In  the  case  of  the  slavery 
in  her  own  islands  she  was  more  than  an  accessary;  and  it 
could  not  be  surpassed  in  hardship  and  inhumanity.  That 
in  the  Spanish  and  French,  or  even  the  Dutch  possessions, 
was  not  worse;  and  in  the  American  provinces  universally 
acknowledged  to  be  much  more  mild.  While  every  where  in 


342  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.   the  latter,  there  was  an  excess  of  births  over  deaths  among 
>*-^v^/  the  negroes,  and   in  some,  a  rapidity  of  increase;  in  the  Bri 
tish  West  Indies,  the  whole  stock  required  renewal  in  less 
than  fifteen  years.* 

I  had  intended  to  copy  from  the  parliamentary  statement* 
some  of  the  facts  illustrative  of  this  additional  waste  of  the 
human  species,  and  of  the  condition  and  treatment  of  the  ne 
groes,  under  British  dominion;  but  I  have   already  dealt  ii 
(details  of  this   nature,  as  much  as  is  compatible  with   my 
limits,  and  the  tenderness  due  to  the  feelings  of  my  readers 
It  is  enough  to  refer  to  the  debates  in  the  British  parliament 
on  the  abolition,  and  on  the  slave  registry  bills.     The  tone  <K 
the  British  writers  has  often  been  such  on  these  subjects,  a  > 
if  they  considered  the  conscience  of  England  clear  with  re 
spect  to  the  slave  trade  and  to  slavery,  because   these  were 
unknown  in  her  own  immediate  territory.     This  miserable 
casuistry  was  noticed  in  Parliament  in  the  year  1792,  in  tin; 
following  pointed  and  just  remarks. 

"  Mr.  Robert  Thornton  said, — the  people  of  England  wer^ 
called  a  humane  set  of  people.  Liberty  was  the  boast  of  ou 
island;  and  it  was  said,  that  no  African  was  landed  on  our 
•soil,  who  did  not  instantly  become  free.  They  were  guilty, 
however,  of  a  contradiction,  as  long  as  they  sent  those  miser 
able  wretches  elsewhere  into  slavery;  they  were  governed  by 
a  selfish  principle;  they  could  send  these  wretches  out  of 
their  sight  to  be  vilified,  and  disgraced,  and  scourged,  but 
they  did  not  themselves,  like  to  witness  their  cries,  their  tears, 
and  all  their  degradation.  He  recollected  an  old  motto, 
c  Qui  facit  per  alium,  facit  per  se.' ' 

Neither  the  Parliament  nor  nation  could,  at  any  time,  plead 
ignorance  of  the  character  of  the  trade,  and  of  West  India 
slavery.  The  collections  of  early  voyages;  the  reports  of  tra 


*  "According  to  Sir  Isaac  Newton,"  says  Dr.  Dickson,  "mankind  di<: 
off,  and  are  renewed  every  thirty-three  or  thirty-four  years.  But  tlu: 
slaves  collectively,  bought  and  bred,  die  off,  and  are  renewed,  in  about 
fifteen  years;  and  therefore  more  than  twice  as  fast  as  the  rest  of  tlu; 
species;  and  the  bought  alone  more  than  four  or  Jive  times  as  fast. '^ 
When  the  whole  number  of  slaves  in  the  British  West  India  Islands 
was  computed  at  265,666,  the  annual  consumption  of  them  was  esti 
mated  at  23,743.  Mr.  Mai  thus  remarks  in  the  Appendix  to  his  Essay 
on  Population,  that  if  the  slaves  in  the  West  Indies  had  been  only  in 
a  tolerable  condition  ;  if  their  civil  condition  and  moral  habits  had  been 
made  only  to  approach  to  those  which  prevail  among  the  mass  of  the 
human  race  in  the  worst  governed  countries  in  the  world,  it  is  contrary 
to  the  general  laws  of  nature  to  suppose,  that  they  would  not  have  been 
able  by  procreation  fully  to  supply  the  effective  demand  for  labour 


SLAVE  TRAIiE.  343 

vellers;  the  mutual,  printed  accusations  of  the  Royal  African  SECT  ix. 
Company,  and  the  private  adventurers:  the  inevitable  noto-  V-^-VN^ 
riety  of  facts  where  considerable  cities  were  almost  entirely 
devoted  to  the  traffic;  the  constant  intercourse  with  the  West 
Indies,  through  ail  ranks  of  life;  the  solemn  admonitions  of 
the  writers  whom  Clarkson  has  cited;  the  insurance  cases 
which  were  brought  into  the  courts  of  justice; — preclude  the 
charitable  supposition  that  mercy,  and  justice,  and  honour 
were  unconsciously  trampled  upon  in  the  race  of  commercial 
competition.  Mr.  Wilberforce,  after  displaying,  in  his  speech 
of  1792,  the  enormities  of  which  1  have  mentioned  a  small 
part,  added,  "  nor  do  we  learn  these  transactions  only  from 
our  own  witnesses;  they  are  proved  by  the  testimony  of  slave- 
factors  themselves,  whose  works  were  written  and  published 
long  before  the  present  enquiry." 

I  have  observed  that,  until  the  year  1786,  no  society  was 
formed  among  any  description  of  persons  in  England,  which 
had  for  its  object  the  abolition  of  the  trade.  The  callousness 
of  the  government  too  is  almost  inconceivable.  Clarkson 
relates  that  Granville  Sharp  communicated  all  the  facts  of  the 
hideous  case  of  captain  Zong,  with  a  copy  of  the  trial  to  the 
Lords  of  the  Admiralty,  as  the  guardians  of  justice  upon  the 
seas,  and  to  the  duke  of  Portland,  as  principal  minister  of 
state;  but  that  no  notice  was  taken  by  any  of  them,  of  the 
information  thus  imparted.  When  the  Quakers  presented,  in 
1783,  their  petition  to  Parliament  against  the  slave  trade,— 
the  first  of  that  purport  ever  presented, — Lord  North  ad 
mitted,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  the  grievousness  of  the 
evil,  and  only  u  regretted  that  the  trade  against  which  the 
petition  was  so  justly  directed,  was,  in  a  commercial  view 
become  necessary  to  almost  every  nation  in  Europe."  In 
17*6,  the  estimable  David  Hartley,  after  exposing  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  the  abominations  of  the  slave  trade,  and 
laying  on  the  table  of  the  House  some  of  the  fetters  and  other 
instruments  of  torture  employed  on  board  of  the  slave  ships, 
made  a  motion  u  that  the  slave  trade  was  contrary  to  the  laws 
of  God  and  the  rights  of  man."  This  motion  was  seconded 
by  the  patriot  and  philanthropist,  Sir  George  Saville,  who 
lives  so  brilliantly  in  the  splendid  eulogy  of  Burke;  and  yet 
it  failed  utterly.  The  proceedings  of  the  Commons  the  year 
following  (1777)  on  the  state  of  the  African  Company,  are 
remarkable  on  account  of  the  tone  which  prevailed  in  the  dis 
cussion.  It  was  such,  as  if  the  trade  were  not  only  unimpeach- 
ed,  but  unimpeachable.  Nothing  betrayed  the  business  to  be 
considered  in  any  other  light  than  as  an  ordinary  one,  except. 


344  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  1.  perhaps,  the  following  remarks  of  Mr.  Temple  Lutlreil,  whx> 
v^~v~>»-/  had  (he  charge  of  unfold  ing  the  case  of  the  Company  and  tin 
interests  of  the  trade.     "  Some  gentlemen  may,  indeed,  ob 
ject  to  the  slave  trade  as  inhuman  and  impious,  but,  hard  a;; 
the  case  of  a  negro  slave  may  appear  to  a  free  born  Briton  a 
first  view,  I  conceive  him  to  be  far  less  an  object  of  commi 
seration,  (his  native  state  and  local  birthright  being  taken  into 
the  comparison,)   than  a  poor  impressed  sailor   within  thi;> 
island,"  &c.     Another  extract  from  the  speech  of  Mr.  Lut  • 
trell,  which  passed  without  animadversion,  will  show  the  pre 
vailing  temper  and  policy  on  the  subject; — how  coolly  and 
nicely  the  comparative  value  of  human  flesh  was  calculated  in 
an  assembly  of  u  free  born  Britons.1' 

"In  the  slave  trade  also,  there  might  be  prodigious  im 
provements;  but  the  attention  of  the  Board  of  Trade  and 
plantations  in  this  matter  has  been  too  much  limited:  the  ne 
groes  from  the  gold  coast  suit  our  West  India  islands  remark 
ably  well;  they  are  laborious,  bold,  hardy,  and  live  upon  littlo 
besides  salt  fish  and  roots,  which  they  meet  with  in  Jamaica. 
The  negroes  from  Congo,  Angola,  and  the  lower  Guinea,  ar<; 
of  a  more  soft,  voluptuous,  and  effeminate  nature,  and  their 
women  chiefly  till  the  ground;  so  that  upon  being  transplant 
ed  to  the  hardships  of  our  sugar  colonies,  they  commit  suicide 
rather  than  endure  them:  hence  it  is  that  one  Gold  Coast  negro 
is  worth,  for  sugar  plantations,  two  of  the  others;  but  in  Nortli 
*flmerica,  where  they  meet  with  food  and  entertainment,  and 
I'.sage  better  adapted  to  their  habits,  they  do  perfectly  well." 

12.  At  length,  in  1787,  through  the  indefatigable  exertions 
of  a  few  humane  individuals  in  the  middle  ranks  of  life,  th<: 
enormities  of  the  slave  system,  in  all  its  stages,  were  forced 
upon  the  attention  of  the  government  and  nation.  A  member 
of  parliament  of  great  personal  consideration,  took  up  th<- 
subject  of  abolition  with  the  zeal  of  an  apostle,  and  the  reso 
lution  of  a  martyr.  He  announced  his  intention  to  summon 
the  government  to  the  performance  of  its  duty;  and  at  once  a 
din  of  protestation  and  fierce  defiance  arose  from  every  quar 
ter.  The  slave  trade,  says  Clarkson,  appeared,  like  the  fabu 
lous  hydra,  to  have  a  hundred  heads;  the  merchant,  the  plan- 
ter,  the  mortgagee,  the  manufacturer,  the  politician,  the  legis 
lator,  the  cabinet  minister,  lifted  up  their  voices  against  its 
annihilation."  The  humanity  and  patriotism  of  Mr.  Pitt,  Mr. 
Fox,  and  of  some  other  distinguished  orators  of  parliament, 
were,  however,  enlisted  with  Wilberforce;  and  no  inconsider 
able  number  of  auxiliaries  had  been  gained  throughout  thfc 


SLAVE  TRADE, 


345 


country,  by  the  diffusion  of  the  tracts  of  Benezet,  Sharp,  and  SECT.  IX, 
Clarkson;  of  pathetic  songs,  and  moving  pictures,  and  what-  ^*~*^-' 
ever  could  vivify  public  feeling  and  excite  national  shame. 
Among  the  higher  classes,  little  real  progress  would  seem  to 
have  been  made;  since,  according  to  Clarkson,  most  of  the 
persons  of  rank  and  fortune  in  the  west  end  of  the  metropolis, 
were  converts  to  a  pamphlet  from  the  pen  of  a  Liverpool 
champion,  entitled,  "Scriptural  Researches  on  the  Licitness 
of  the  Slave  Trade,"  in  which  the  holiness  of  the  trade  was 
stoutly  maintained. 

In  1788,  when  a  sufficiently  marked  excitement  had  been  * 
produced  in  the  country,  and  the  imposing  shape  of  evidence 
before  the  privy  council  given  to  facts,  a  bill  was  brought  into 
the  House  of  Commons  for  the  mere  regulation  of  the  trade, 
so  as  to  diminish  the  miseries  of  the  middle  passage.  At  this 
day,  it  is  scarcely  credible  what  resistance  was  made,  both  in 
doors  and  out,  to  this  bill,  which  common  humanity  seemed 
to  exact;  what  dilution  it  underwent  in  its  progress;  and  how 
narrowly  it  escaped  extinction,  notwithstanding  the  earnest 
support  of  the  minister,  and  a  phalanx  of  the  ablest  rhetori 
cians  who  have  ever  existed.  It  was  bandied  several  times 
in  new  forms,  between  the  two  houses,  and  at  length  passed 
the  Lords,  through  an  ordeal,  says  Clarkson,  as  it  were  of 
fire.  He  adds,  that  it  was  "the  first  bill  which  ever  put  fetters 
upon  the  destructive  monster — the  slave  trade;"  but  the  fact 
soon  transpired,  that  it  missed  its  aim,  and  was  interpreted  by 
the  slave  merchants  into  an  additional  charter,  or  recognition 
of  their  pursuit  as  a  lawful  branch  of  commerce. 

In  1789,  Mr.  Wilberforce  ventured  to  lay  upon  the  table 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  as  subjects  for  future  discussion, 
twelve  historical  propositions  founded  upon  the  evidence  in 
the  case  of  the  slave  trade,  reported  by  the  privy  council. 
Matters  were  not  ripe  for  the  proposal  of  abolition  to  parlia 
ment,  until  1791,  when  Mr.  Wilberforce  made  his  first  grand 
motion  to  'hat  effect.  After  a  vehement  and  protracted  debate, 
in  v.-.ich  the  leaders  of  the  cause  exerted  their  utmost  ability, 
it  wv.s  lost  by  a  considerable  majority.  For  the  opinion  to  be 
entertained  of  this  result,  I  need  only  refer  to  the  language  of 
Mr.  Fox  ancl  the  Edinburgh  Review.  Mr.  Fox  said,  in  the  de 
bate,  that  "  iht-  irade  was  defensible  upon  no  other  ground  than 
that  of  a  highwayman;  and  that  if  tht-  house,  knowing  as  they 
did  by  the  evidence,  what  it  was,  did  not  by  their  vote  mark  to 
all  mankind  their  abhorrence  of  a  practice  so  savage,  so  enor 
mous,  so  repugnant  to  all  laws  human  and  divine,  they  would 
consign  their  character  to  eternal  infamv-"  The  Edinburgh 
VOL.  I— Xx 


346* 


IN'EGRO  SLAVERY  AND 


PART  I.  Review  has  told  us,  that  "  the  question  of  the  slave  trade  was 
v^-v^w  always  one  in  which  interest,  or  an  apprehension  of  interest 
stood  more  daringly  and  nakedly  opposed  to  humanity  and 
justice,  than  any  other  on  record."  Certainly,  never  was  a 
question  of  such  awful  import,  so  treated  as  this  was,  by  the 
numerous  advocates  of  the  slave  trade  in  Parliament. "  On 
the  occasion  just  mentioned,  Mr.  Grosvenor  said,  "  that  gentle 
men  had  exhibited  a  great  deal  of  eloquence  in  exhibiting  in 
horrid  colours,  the  traffic  in  slaves.  He  acknowledged  it  was 
not  an  amiable  trade;  but  neither  was  the  trade  of  a  butcher 
an  amiable  trade;  and  yet  a  mutton  chop  was.,  nevertheless,  a 
good  thing."* 

Another  and  equally  strenuous  effort  was  made,  the  ensu 
ing  year,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  by  the  abolitionists, 
The  house  rejected  the  proposition  of  Mr.  Wilberforce,  but 
manifested  a  disposition  to  vote  a  gradual  abolition.  So  much, 
after  the  admissions  extorted  by  the  testimony,  from  the  leader* 
of  the  majority,  and  with  the  prospect  of  an  effervescence 
of  public  sentiment  from  the  cogent  arguments  and  elo 
quent  pictures  of  the  speakers  in  the  affirmative,  could  not, 
in  decency  or  policy,  be  refused.  Mr.  Pitt,  who,  on  this  oc 
casion,  put  forth  all  the  energies  and  beauties  of  his  unrivalled 
oratory,  afterwards  expressed  himself  in  his  place,  in  these 
terms:  "I  feel  the  infamy  of  the  trade  so  heavily,  and  see  tin 
impolicy  of  it  so  clearly,  that  I  am  ashamed  I  have  not  been 
able  to  convince  the  house  to  abandon  it  altogether  at  an  in 
stant — to  pronounce  with  one  voice  (he  immediate  and  total 
abolition.  There  is  no  excuse  for  us,  seeing  this  infernal 
traffic  as  we  do.  It  is  the  very  death  of  justice  to  utter  a 
syllable  in  support  of  it." 

Mr.  Dundas,  one  of  the  antagonists  of  immediate  abolition, 
in  a  short  time,  brought  in  a  bill  for  a  gradual  one,  with  some 
singular  additions.  He  proposed  that,  for  the  future,  nom 
but  young  persons  should  be  allowed  to  be  taken  from  Africa, 
and  that  a  bounty  should  be  given  upon  the  importation  or 
young  negresses  into  the  West  Indies.  On  this  latter  point. 
Mr.  Fox,  in  his  overwhelming  answer  to  Mr.  Dundas,  bore 
with  particular  severity.  "  A  right  honourable  gentleman- 
proposes  a  bounty  on  the  importation  of  females,  or,  in  other 

*  In  the  final  debate  in  the  House  of  Lords,  in  1807,  Earl  St.  Vin 
cent  said,  "He  was  surprised  at  the  proposition  of  abolition  before  tin- 
house,  and  considering  the  high  character  and  intelligence  of  the  no 
ble  proposer,  Lord  Grenville,  he  declared  he  could  account  in  no  othei 
way  for  his  having  brought  it  forward,  but  by  supposing  that  some 
Obiman  had  cast  his  spell  upon  him  !"  (.#  laugh.") 


SLAVE  TRADE.  347 

words,  he  proposes  to  make  up  the  deficiency  in  the  propor-  SECT.IX. 
tion  of  sexes,  by  offering  a  premium  to  any  crew  of  unprin-  v-^~v">*"' 
cipled  and  savage  ruffians,  who  will  attack  and  carry  off  any 
of  the  females  of  Africa!  a  bounty  from  the  parliament  of 
Great  Britain,  that  shall  make  the  fortune  of  any  man,  or  set 
of  men,  who  shall  kidnap  or  steal  any  unfortunate  females 
from  that  continent!  who  shall  bring  them  over  as  slaves,  in 
order  that  they  may  be  used  for  breeding  slaves!"  In  the 
course  of  the  debate,  Mr.  Dundas  declared  that  these  United 
States  would,  if  Great  Britain  abandoned  the  slave  trade, 
purvey  for  the  West  Indies;  ^nd  he  added — "  Is  it  to  be  ima 
gined  that  the  Americans  are  so  favourably  disposed  towards 
this  country,  as  to  resist  the  temptation  of  forming  so  valuable 
a  connexion  with  our  colonies?  A  connexion  once  begun  by 
Supplying  them  with  negroes  would  not  end  there;  and  we 
might  lose  the  West  Indies  without  accomplishing  our  object." 

Mr.  Fox  replied,  that  he  was  not  so  much  alarmed  by  the 
possibility  of  the  British  Islands  getting  into  habits  of  intimacy 
with  foreigners.  Though  the  apprehension  of  Mr.  Dundas 
concerning  our  assumption  of  the  British  slave  trade  has,  no 
doubt,  vanished  from  the  minds  of  his  successors  in  office,  we 
may  suspect,  that  the  alarm  at  the  possible  consequences  of  an 
intimacy  between  these  States  and  the  West  Indies,  is  one  of  the 
motives  of  the  present  rigorous  system  of  commercial  exclusion. 

The  Commons  voted  a  gradual  abolition,  and  the  Lords 
refused  to  concur.  The  next  year,  1793,  the  former  refused 
to  renew  their  vote,  and  rejected  a  motion  of  Mr.  Wilberforce, 
to  abolish  that  part  of  the  British  trade,  by  which  the  British 
merchants  supplied  foreigners  with  slaves.  This  motion,  how 
ever,  being  revived  in  1794,  was  finally  carried  in  a  verv 
thin  house;  but  lost  with  the  Peers  by  a  majority  of  forty-five 
to  four.  I  need  not  recite  the  annual  and  fruitless  attempts  of 
the  abolitionists  between  this  period  and  the  year  1807,  when 
they  finally  succeeded.  The  degree  of  merit  for  the  interval, 
to  which  the  Parliament  and  nation  are  entitled,  may  be  col 
lected  from  the  following  passage  of  the  Edinburgh  Review.* 

"  The  vast  and  general  sensation  produced  by  the  first  de 
velopment  of  the  horrible  traffic  in  human  flesh,  speedily 
gave  place  to  a  much  more  sober  and  partial  sentiment  of  re 
probation;  no  small  difficulty  was  experienced  in  attracting 
the  attention  of  the  public  to  the  discussion  for  many  years; 
it  was  pretty  uniformly  debated  among  empty  benches,  in  those 
august  assemblies,  whose  walls  can  scarce  contain  their  crowds, 

*  No.4f. 


348  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  i.  when  a  person  of  honour  is  to  be  attacked,  or  a  female  of  easy 
^•^"v'w  virtue  is  to  give  evidence." 

The  degree  of  success  obtained  at  any  time  with  the  pub 
lic,  and  the  final  triumph  of  the  question,  were  owing  in  no 
small  measure  to  considerations  of  expediency.  It  was  found 
important  to  give  quite  as  extensive  a  circulation  to  Clarkson's 
Essay  on  the  Impolicy  of  the  Slave  Trade,  as  to  the  pam 
phlets  on  its  criminality,  and  the  abstracts  of  the  evidence  re 
specting  its  unparalleled  barbarities.  In  Parliament,  the 
abolitionists  laboured  mainly  to  prove,  that  instead  of  being 
advantageous  to  Great  Britain,  it  was  most  destructive  to  her 
interests;  wras  the  ruin  of  her  seamen;  prevented  the  extension 
of  her  manufactures;  was  no  longer  necessary  for  the  mainte 
nance  of  the  due  number  of  labourers  in  the  West  Indies; 
that  a  much  more  lucrative  intercourse  with  Africa  might  be 
substituted  for  it;  that  the  other  powers  of  the  world  would 
either  relinquish  it,  or  be  unable  to  carry  it  on,  so  that  all 
would  remain  upon  a  footing,  &c.  Mr.  Wilberforce,  in  his 
first  speech,  admitting,  for  argument's  sake,  that  "  the  rivals 
of  Britain,  the  French''  might  take  it  up,  asked  "  Would  they 
not  then  be  obliged  to  come  to  us,  in  consequence  of  the 
cheapness  of  our  manufactures,  for  what  they  wanted  for  the 
African  market?"  We  find  the  Edinburgh  Reviewers  rebuking 
the  great  abolitionist,  in  their  47th  number,  for  talking,  in 
his  printed  letter  to  M.  Talleyrand,  of  the  great  sacrifice 
which  England  had  made  in  the  abolition,  after  he  and  all 
his  coadjutors  had  uniformly,  and  so  efficaciously,  pleaded  the 
mischievousness  of  the  traffic  to  her,  whether  as  a  nursery  for 
seamen,  or  a  channel  for  the  employment  of  capital. 

In  the  final  debate  of  1807,  on  the  abolition,  Mr.  Whit- 
bread,  one  of  its  most  zealous  advocates,  said  u  It  was  com 
plained  that  too  much  feeling  and  too  much  passion  had  been 
carried  into  this  discussion.  He  complained  on  the  contrary, 
that  it  had  been  made  too  little  a  question  of  feeling,  and  that 
it  had  been  made  almost  entirely  a  matter  of  cold  calculations 
of  profit  and  loss  between  English  money  and  African  blood." 
Lord  Castlereagh,  indeed,  did,  in  his  first  interview  with  the 
emperor  of  Russia,  on  the  subject  of  general  abolition,  expa 
tiate  upon  what  the  British  parliament  had  done  in  spite  of  the 
suggestions  of  national  interest;*  but,  in  the  general  confer 
ences  on  the  same  subject,  at  Vienna,  u  Lord  Castlereagh,"  says 
the  protocol  of  the  sitting  of  20lh  January,  1815,  "  communi- 

*  See  Letter  of  Lord  Castlereagh  to  Earl  Bathursl,  dated  Vienna, 
January  2d,  1815,  among  the  papers  laid  before  Parliament,  April, 
1815. 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


349 


cated  authentic  documents  to  prove  that  in  the  affair  in  ques-  SECT.IX. 
tion,  the  interest  of  the  powers  of  Europe  went  hand  in  hand  ^^^^ 
with  their  duty;  that  the  abolition  was  particularly  for  the 
real  advantage,  and  even  indispensable  for  the  security,  of  the 
colonial  countries,"  &c.* 

On  all  hands,  there  must  be  an  immediate  concurrence  in 
the  general  allegation  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  that  "  for  the 
long  space  of  twenty  years,  Mr.  Pitt  could  persuade  about 
three-fourths  of  the  members  of  Parliament  to  adopt  any 
scheme  of  finance,  or  of  external  policy  which  he  chose  to 
countenance,  but  did  never  once  prevail  against  the  slave  tra 
ders  and   consignees  of  sugar   in    Bristol   and   Liverpool."! 
The  Reviewers  have  made  this  failure,  considered  in  con 
nexion  w7ith  the  prompt  success  of  the  Fox  administration,  the 
ground  of  a  most  atrocious  charge  against  the  memory  of  Mr. 
Pitt — that  he  was  not  sincere  in  the  cause  of  abolition,  as  a 
minister,  although  he  might  have  been  as  a  man.     The  dis 
tinction  would  not  save  him,  if  this  were  true,  from  being  re 
garded  as  the  vilest  of  hypocrites,  nor  the  genius  of  the  Bri 
tish  government  from  appearing  as  the  most  entirely  artificial 
and  selfish  ever  known.     The  strain  of  Mr.  Pitt's  speeches 
absolves  him,  however;  and  Clarkson  has  borne  the  strongest 
testimony  to  his  good  faith.     His  colleagues  in  the  ministry, 
particularly  the  lord  chancellor,  Thurlow,  exerted  themselves 
indefatigably,  in  opposition  to  the  measure,  and  weakened  the 
impression  of  his  station.     The  stigma  does  not  attach  to 
him,  but  to  the  Parliament,  if  he  could  make  a  majority  in 
such  a  case;   if  he  could  bring  them  to  act  properly  on  a 
question  the  most  important  for  humanity,  and  the  reputation 
of  the  British  name,  only  by  using  his  influence  as  minister; 
that  is,  as  the  head  of  a  party,  and  the  dispenser  of  place  and 
patronage.     There   is  another  question  which  neither  Mr. 
Pitt  nor  Mr.  Fox  could  have  carried  through  both  houses  of 
Parliament,  even  as  ministers — that  of  catholic  emancipation; 
and  the  reader  will  remark  that  it  is  alone  on  two  points  of  this 
description,  in  which  the  freedom  of  millions  was  involved, 
ministerial  influence  has  been  found  ineffectual  in  the  British 
legislature. 

In  the  course  of  the  present  parliamentary  session,  (1819,) 
Mr.  William  Smith  of  Norwich — to  whom  the  cause  of  abo 
lition  is  as  much  indebted  as  to  any  other  parliamentary  ad 
vocate,  except  Mr.  Wilberforce — stated  to  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  that  even  at  last  in  1807,  after  the  twenty  years  discus- 

*  Pieces  Officiellesde  Schoell.  vol.  vii.  f  No.  24. 


350 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 


PART  I.  siollj  it  required  all  the  efforts  of  almost  every  member  oi'  that 
v-x"v~x-'  house,  who  had  any  title  to  the  character  of  an  orator  or  a 
statesman,  to  carry  the  act  through  the  Parliament.     In  fact, 
in  the  final  debates,  the  justice  and  humanity  of  the  trade  we  re 
maintained  as  boldly  as  they  ever  had  been;  arguments  of 
counsel  were  heard  at  the  bar,  and  petitions  received,  agaiiist 
the    abolition;    Lord    Castlereagh,    Lord    Sidmoulh,    Lcrd 
Hawkesbury,  Lord  Eldon,  Lord  Westmoreland,  Mr.  Rose, 
Mr.  Bathurst,  spoke  in  opposition.    These  were  the  men  who, 
immediately  after  the  abolition  became  a  law,  took  the  pkce 
of  its  patrons  in  the  government.     Clarkson  remarks,  that 
though  the  bill  had  now  passed  both  houses,  u  there  was  an 
awful  fear  lest  it  should  not  receive  the  royal  assent,  before 
the  Grenville  ministry  was  dissolved."     This  awful  fear  was 
founded  upon  the  conviction  that,  with  a  ministry  adverse  to 
the  measure,  no  parliament  could  be  found  to  adopt  it  at  the 
instigation  of  a  member  out  of  office.     There  is  nothing, 
therefore,  forced,  or  illiberal,  in  the  conclusion,  that  it  was 
a  general  party  movement;   an  act  of  subserviency  in  the 
old  routine  to  the  will  of  an  administration  firmly  united  and 
inextricably  entangled  in  the  object;  that,  had  that  ministry 
been  dissolved  before  the   royal  assent  was  given,  the  slnve 
traffic  would  be  at  this  day  a  lawful  branch  of  British  com 
merce.*    As  the  case  was,  seventeen  years  had  elapsed  since 
superabundant,  irrefragable  evidence  of  the  history  and  cha 
racter  of  the  traffic  was  officially  before  Parliament:  within 
that  interval  it  had  been  allowed  to  flourish  on  an  enlarged 
scale.     Sir  Samuel  Romilly  told  the  House  of  Commons,  in 
1806,  that  "since  the  year  1796,  no  less  than  three  hundred 
and  sixty  thousand  Africans  had  been  torn  away,  under  the 
continued  sanction  of  Parliament,  from  their  native  land." 
This  estimate  is  certainly  too  low,  for  the  annual  exportation 
of  the  British,  according  to  the  Edinburgh  Review,  rose  to 
57,000,  after  the  acquisition  of  the  Dutch  colonies  in  1707. 
The  Report  of  the  African  Institution  for  the  present  year 

*  The  following1  extract  from  the  debate  of  the  House  of  Commons 
of  June  27th,  1814,  will  shew  that  I  am  not  alone  in  this  conjecture. 
"Mr-  Philips  said — 

"  I  cannot  forget  that  the  public  voice  had  been  raised  even  more 
loudly  against  the  slave  trade  before  the  administration  of  Mr.  Fox, 
than  during  its  brief  existence ;  and  to  such  a  degree  do  I  think  the 
gratitude  of  the  friends  of  justice  and  humanity  due  to  that  short-lived, 
and  much  misrepresented  administration,  that  I  do  in  my  conscience  be - 
'Heve,  but  for  them,  the  Jiritish  slave  trade  -would  at  tlda  moment  have  been 
continued  to  the  disgrace  of  the  country,  to  the  outrage  of  public  feeling,  o.ntf 
-in  violation  of  every  principle  of  policy,  justice,  and  humanity." 


SLAVE  TRAD£,  351 

(!Sl9)  states  ttye  average  at  55,000,  and  admits  fiiat  the  num-  SECT.  ix. 
ber  taken  from  Africa  in  1806  and  1807,  in  the  prospect  o/^^^-^^ 
the  approadiing  abolition  of  the  trade,  teas  very  considerable. 
From  the  period  when  Mr.  Pitt  declared  to  Parliament  that 
they  had  examined  sufficiently  into  the  nature  of  the  trade  to 
enable  them  to  decide,  and  must  be  now  convinced  of  its 
cruelty  and  injustice,  until  the  date  of  the  cessation  of  im 
portation  into  the  British  colonies,  the  number  of  negroes  car 
ried  into  slavery  by  the  British  merchants  with  the  authority 
of  the  nation,  could  not  have  been  less  than  one-third  of  the 
whole  number  now  existing  in  the  United  States. 

13.  My  readers  may  already  understand,  that  the  British 
abolition  is  not  quite  so  abundantly  creditable,  as  to  render  it 
an  adequate  foundation  for  invidious  reflections  on  the  United 
States.  But  I  will  suppose  that  the  motives  were  altogether  pure 
and  magnanimous;  that  it  was  the  immediate  fruit  of  Chris 
tian  conviction; — a  national  act  of  contrition  and  atonement. 
The  questions  then  arise, — was  it  in  itself  a  sufficient  repara 
tion  for  the  wrongs  done  to  Africa?  and  if  not,  has  Great 
Britain  performed  her  utmost  to  make  full  amends?  The  ad 
vocates  of  the  abolition  admitted  universally,  what  all  must 
perceive,  that  by  it  she  had  merely  stopped  the  increase  oi 
her  vast  debt  to  that  continent  and  to  humanity;  that  she  was 
bound  to  go  further;  to  rectify  the  condition  of  the  negroes 
within  her  dominions,  and,  if  possible,  to  withdraw  all  the 
other  nations  from  the  slave  trade.  Everyone  saw  that  unless 
her  example  were  imitated  by  the  slave-dealing  powers  of 
Europe,  her  proceeding,  however  useful  to  her  own  commerce 
and  character,  would  be  productive,  comparatively,  of  little 
advantage  to  Africa,  and  followed  by  an  extensive  clandestine 
trade  in  her  own  dependencies. 

Reviewing  the  statements  of  those  who  brought  about  the 
abolition,  respecting  the  immensity  of  the  crime  she  had  com 
mitted,  and  the  misery  and  mischief  she  had  caused;  and  on  the 
other  hand,  the  estimates  made  by  the  anti-abolitionists,  of  the 
vast  emolument  and  general  advantages  which  she  had  gained, 
in  the  prosecution  of  the  trade,  closet- moralists  thought  it  in 
cumbent  upon  ber,  to  interpose  her  whole  strength  in  favour  of 
the  region  she  had  so  long  desolated,  and  of  the  portion  of  its 
offspring  within  the  limits  of  her  empire,  in  any  way  that  might 
be  found  necessary  to  give  efficacy  to  her  intervention,  and  at 
any  risk.  For  the  sake  of  an  addition  to  her  revenue,  she  had 
hazarded  and  incurred  the  loss  of  thirteen  flourishing  colonies; 
for  the  acquisition  of  slips  of  territory  in  America,  and  of  sugar 


352 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 


PART  I.  islands  filled  with  black  slaves, — for  points  of  honour  and  ma;  1- 
-— •'^v^^-'  time  prerogative;  for  security  from  possible  dangers, — she  h  id 
waged  long  and  destructive  wars.  She  might,  then,  to  make 
her  atonement  for  the  enormity  and  havoc  of  the  slave  trace, 
in  some  degree  commensurate  with  her  guilt — ro  prevent  t  ic 
continuance  of  a  system  subversive  of  the  law  of  nations,  and 
of  the  principles  of  Christianity;  superlatively  baneful  and  in- 
moral, — she  might,  if  no  other  means  would  suffice,  unsheath 
her  sword,  and  be  assured  in  so  doing  of  the  favour  of  the  God 
of  battles,  and  of  all  the  friends  of  humanity  and  justice  DII 
earth.  On  such  an  occasion  it  became  her,  when  convinced 
of  the  futility  of  every  other  expedient.,  to  exert  her  maritine 
superiority,  regardless  of  all  forms  and  obstacles — a  course  of 
proceeding  not  without  precedent  in  her  history. 

At  the  period  of  her  abolition,  France  and  Spain  being  at 
war  with  her,  had  long  been  cut  off  from  the  trade.  Tiie 
only  power  engaged  in  the  prosecution  of  it,  was  Portugil, 
whose  government  depended  upon  her  for  its  existence. 
Scarcely  a  year  elapsed,  when  Spain  returned  to  a  stote 
of  amity  with  her,  under  such  circumstances,  as  rendered 
it  impossible  she  should  be  refused  any  boon  she  might  oe 
pleased  to  ask.  But  I  will  leave  it  to  an  English  writer  to 
explain  the  nature  of  the  conjuncture,  and  to  state  the  result. 
I  find  the  following  exposition  in  a  remarkable  work  publish 
ed  the  last  year  (1818)  in  London,  and  entitled,  "A  View  of 
the  present  Increase  of  the  Slave  Trade,  by  Robert  Thorpe, 
L.  L.  D.  Jatc  Chief  Justice  of  Sierra  Leone,  and  Judge  of  the 
Vice  Admiralty  Court  in  that  Colony." 

"  At  the  moment  England  abolished  the  slave  trade,  all  Eu 
rope  was  most  favourably  circumstanced  to  ensure  an  univer 
sal  abolition.  The  royal  family  of  Spain  threw  themselves 
into  the  arms  of  France,  and  were  handed  to  a  prison.  The 
royal  family  of  Portugal  sought  the  protection  of  England,  and 
were  safely  conveyed  to  their  Brasil  dominions.  We  only 
wanted  the  co-operation  of  these  powers  to  establish  a  perfect 
abolition;  we  upheld  them  as  kingdoms;  we  had  a  right  to 
insist  on  their  abolishing  the  slave  trade;  every  principle  of 
justice  and  humanity  called  for  such  a  demand,  while  the  po 
licy  and  professions  of  this  nation  should  have  made  compli 
ance  necessary.  Such  a  requisition  could  not  have  been  con 
sidered  as  interfering  with  the  independence  of  those  govern 
ments,  nor  with  the  rights  of  their  subjects.  Independence  is 
not  comprised  in  a  power  to  enslave^  nor  do  the.lawful  rights  of 
any  people  consist  in  their  ability  to  invade  the  natural  rights  of 
man.  While  England  was  exhausting  her  blood  and  treasure 


SLATE  TRADE. 


353 


m  defence  of  the  liberty  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  she  was  not  SECT.  IX. 
warrantable  in  diminishing  the  resources  of  her  wealth,  to  ex-  v*^^^-' 
tend  the  cruelty  of  their  commerce;  but  the  most  fortunate  coin 
cidence  was  criminally  neglected."* 

Nothing  can  be  more  just  than  all  this  representation.  Every 
one  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  era  of  Bonaparte's  in 
vasion  of  the  Peninsula,  must  be  convinced,  that  it  was  in  the 
power  of  England,  to  extort  from  Portugal  and  Spain  the 
abolition  of  their  slave  trade.  "  It  would  have  been,"  said 
Mr.  Canning,  palliating  the  omission  in  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  "unwise  to  have  taken  a  high  tone  with  them  in  the  day 
of  their  distress;  a  strong  remonstrance  on  this  subject  would 
have  gone  with  too  much  of  authority,  and  have  appeared 
insulting.''!  So  fastidious  a  delicacy,  where  the  object  was, 
according  to  the  British  theory,  of  immeasurable  importance 
to  the  repose  of  the  national  conscience,  and  to  humanity! 
The  day  of  the  absolute  dependence  of  those  powers  upon 
England,  was  the  only  day,  in  which  there  was  any  likelihood 
of  the  accomplishment  of  that  object  with  them;  and  a  strong 
remonstrance  against  the  prosecution  of  a  system  so  exorbi 
tantly  wicked  and  pernicious,  could  not  in  itself  have  worn 
the  air  of  insult,  but  would  rather  have  appeared  an  act  of 
noble  friendship  and  resolute  philanthropy.  With  the  lives 
and  happiness  of  millions  of  Africans,  and  all  the  other  mo 
mentous  considerations  attached  to  the  extinguishment  of  the 
slave  trade,  at  stake,  the  opportunity  was  to  be  improved  de- 
terminately,  though  at  a  greater  cost  than  a  little  violence 
done  to  perverted  feelings,  and  the  excitement  of  an  impotent 
discontent.  If  Spain  and  Portugal  could  be  induced  to  com 
ply  at  once,  then,  as  no  lawful  trade  in  slaves  would  exist  dur 
ing  the  war,  Great  Britain  ruling  the  seas  and  exercising  the 
belligerent  right  of  search,  might  repress  all  illicit  trade,  and 
take  much  more  effectual  precautions  against  its  revival  in 
any  shape.  In  this  point  of  view,  the  opportunity  seemed 
doubly  precious,  and  irretrievable. 

The  coincidence  was,  to  repeat  the  language  of  Dr.  Thorpe, 
"  criminally  neglected."  The  British  abolition  took  the  cha 
racter  of  a  division  of  the  British  share  of  the  trade  between 
foreign  powers,  and  a  number  of  British  subjects  upon  whom 
the  act  of  Parliament  would  not  serve  as  a  restraint.  The 
anti-abolitionists  predicted  this,  and  contributed  to  the  fulfil 
ment  of  the  prediction.  Portugal  was  left  at  liberty  to  supply 
not  ©nly  her  own  dependencies,  but  those  of  Spain;  and  to  the 

*  Page  24  f  Debate  on  the  Treaty  of  1814. 

VOL,  I.—Y  y 


354  JSEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.  latter,  cargoes  were  incessantly  carried  under  the  Portuguese 
s^-vx»^  flag,  untjl  at  length  the  British  cruizers  were  authorized  to 
bring  in  for  adjudication,  such  Portuguese  ships  as  might  be 
found  carrying  slaves,  to  places  not  subject  to  the  crown  of 
Portugal.  It  was  discovered,  within  the  year  after  the  ter 
mination  by  law  of  the  British  exportation,  that  the  trade 
itself  had  not  suffered  the  least  abatement;  but,  on  the  con 
trary,  was  plied  with  greater  activity,  to  a  greater  extent,  and 
with  aggravated  barbarity,  under  the  Spanish,  Swedish,  and 
Portuguese  flags.  "The  slave  trade,"  says  the  Report,  dated 
1810,  of  the  commissioners  of  African  inquiry,  u  is  at  pre 
sent  carried  on  to  a  vast  extent.  By  the  autumn  of  1809, 
the  coast  of  Africa  swarmed  with  contraband  vessels;  and  it 
was  not  until  the  arrival  of  a  small  squadron  of  his  majesty's 
vessels,  early  the  next  year  (1810!)  that  any  interruption 
could  be  given  to  their  proceedings."  In  1810,  Great  Britain 
concluded  a  treaty  with  Portugal,  by  which  she  secured  to 
herself  great  commercial  advantages,  and  consented  that  Por 
tugal  should  carry  on  the  trade  in  slaves  from  the  African  do 
minions  (claimed  or  in  possession)  of  the  Portuguese  crown, 
precisely  the  great  marts  of  the  trade — Portugal  announcing, 
at  the  same  time,  with  what  sincerity  will  soon  be  seen,  her 
resolution  to  co-operate  with  his  Britannic  majesty  in  the 
cause  of  humanity  and  justice,  &c. 

To  display  the  efficacy  of  the  British  abolition  for  the  first 
years,  I  will  here  make  a. few  extracts  from  the  Reports  of  the 
London  African  Institution — a  society  which  boasts  of  the 
most  illustrious  names,  and  is  the  centre  of  information  re 
specting  African  affairs. 

"Circumstances,"  says  the  Report  of  1809,  "have  come 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  directors  of  this  institution,  which 
leave  them  no  room  to  doubt  that  means  are  at  this  moment 
employed  by  persons  formerly  engaged  in  the  slave  trade,  for 
eluding  the  salutary  provisions  of  the  abolition  act,  and  per 
petuating  the  guilt  and  misery  of  that  traffic." 

"No  foreign  states,"  says  the  Report  of  1810,  "have  hi 
therto  followed  the  example  set  them  by  the  legislatures  of 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  of  America.  The  flags  of 
Spain  and  of  Sweden  have  of  late  been  extensively  employed 
in  covering  and  protecting  a  trade  in  slaves.  Nor  is  this  all, 
Jt  has  been  discovered  that,  in  defiance  of  all  the  penalties 
imposed  by  act  of  Parliament,  vessels  under  foreign  flags 
have  been  fitted  out  in  the  ports  of  Liverpool  and  London,  for 
the  purpose  of  carrying  slaves  from  the  coast  of  Africa  to  the 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  settlements  in  America.  Some  car- 


SLAVE  TRADE.  35,5 

goes  from  that  coast  have  been  landed  at  St.  Bartholomews,  SECT.  IX. 
and  smuggled  thence  into  English  islands.     The  discovery  of  s^v-^* 
one  transaction  has  likewise  discovered  to  the  directors  facts, 
which  tend  to  implicate  persons  of  some  consideration  in  so 
ciety  in  the  guilt  of  these  and  similar  practices." 

"On  the  coast  of  Africa,"  says  the  Report  of  1811,  "the 
same  melancholy  scene  has  been  exhibited  during  the  last 
year,  which  the  directors  had  the  pain  of  describing  in  their 
former  report.  The  coast  has  swarmed  with  slave  ships, 
chiefly  under  Portuguese  and  Spanish  colours,  &c.  Suffice  it 
to  say,  that  accounts  from  various  quarters  concur  with  certain 
judicial  proceedings  which  have  taken  place  in  this  country, 
to  prove,  that  a  very  considerable  trade  in  slaves  has  been  car 
ried  on  of  late,  and  a  large  portion  of  it  by  means  of  the  capi 
tal  and  credit  of  British  subjects.*** After  the  length  to  which 
the  report  has  already  run,  the  directors  are  unwilling  to  enter 
into  minute  details,  with  regard  to  the  means  which  have  been 
practised  in  the  West  Indies,  to  elude  the  laws  prohibiting  the 
importation  of  slaves.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  they  have  re 
ceived  information  which  satisfies  them  that  those  laws  have 
"been  grossly,  and  in  some  instances  openly,  violated,  by  the 
importation  of  slaves,  to  a  considerable  extent,  into  our  own 
West  India  colonies." 

cc  There  is  a  large  class  of  contraband  slave  ships  fitted  out 
chiefly  from  London  or  Liverpool,  destined  in  fact  to  the  coast 
of  Africa,"  &c. 

"The  representations,"  says  the  Report  of  1812,  "which 
the  directors  made  in  their  last  report,  of  the  extent  to  which 
the  slave  trade  had  revived  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  appear  to 
have  fallen  short  of  the  truth.  The  result  of  the  intelligence 
which  they  have  since  received  is,  that,  during  the  year  1810, 
no  less  than  from  70  to  80,000  Africans  were  transported  as ' 
slaves  from  the  western  coast  of  Africa  to  the  opposite  shores 
of  the  Atlantic.  The  greatest  proportion  is  either  a  British 
or  an  American  trade,  conducted  under  the  flags  of  Spain  and 
Portugal. 

"  What,"  says  the  Report  of  1813,  "  has  been  represented 
as  a  bona  fide  Spanish  or  Portuguese  slave  trade,  has  turned 
out,  upon  strict  examination,  to  be,  in  many  instances,  a  trade 
in  slaves,  illegally  carried  on  by  British  capital  and  British 
subjects,  and  in  some  instances  by  American  subjects." 

"  The  directors  have  to  bring  before  the  general  meeting  a 
new  species  of  slave  trade,  carried  on,  it  should  seem,  between 
Egypt  and  the  island  of  Malta.  They  have  received  informa 
tion  on  which  they  are  disposed  to  rely,  stating  that  several 


356  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  i.  slaves  have  been  brought  from  Alexandria  to  that  island,  and 
*^*~*^*s  there  sold  to  Englishmen,  as  well  as  to  Maltese  inhabitants. 
These  poor  creatures  consist  principally  of  negro  children, 
brought  from  countries  bordering  on  the  upper  Nile,"  &c. 

u  It  is  with  extreme  regret  that  the  directors  are  again 
obliged  to  state  the  want  of  success  which  has  attended  their 
repeated,  earnest,  and  urgent  representations  to  government 
respecting  the  slave  trade,  carried  on  by  means  of  the  Por 
tuguese  island  of  Bissao,"  &c. 

"  The  condition  of  the  slaves,  in  the  new  British  conquests, 
the  Isles  of  France  and  Bourbon,  is  wretched  in  the  extreme, 
It  is  with  feelings  of  deep  regret  that  the  directors,  in  pro 
ceeding  to  advert  to  the  condition  of  slaves  in  the  West  In 
dies,  express  their  belief  that  most  flagrant  abuses  continue  tc 
exist  in  the  administration  of  the  law,  as  far  as  regards  those 
unhappy  beings,  if,  indeed,  they  can  be  said  to  be  under  tin 
protection  of  any  law." 

"  The  directors  cannot  close,  their  observations  on  the  state 
of  Africa,  without  adverting  to  the  exportation  of  arms  anc', 
gunpowder  to  that  continent.  It  is  well  known  that  before  the. 
passing  of  the  act  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  these 
were  exported  thither  in  very  large  quantities.  Letters  re 
ceived  from  persons  in  Africa,  whose  veracity  is  unquestion 
able,  assert  the  fact,  that  the  slave  traders  are  supplied  will, 
these  necessary  implements  of  their  traffic,  solely  from  thi? 
country -,  and  that,  indeed,  they  were  to  be  obtained  no  where 
else." 

"  A  very  considerable  slave  trade,"  says  the  Report  of  1814 
u  is  still  carried  on  to  the  islands  of  France  and  Bourbon." 

"  There  is  too  much  reason  to  believe  that  a  considerable 
traffic  of  slaves  still  exists  on  the  north  coast  of  Africa." 

"The  board  have  still  to  lament  the  continuance  of  flagrant 
abuses  in  several  of  the  West  India  islands,"  &c. 

14.  On  the  triumph  of  the  allied  arms  over  the  power  of  Bo  - 
naparte,  in  the  spring  of  1814,  another  crisis  seemed  to  present 
itself,  propitious  to  the  object  of  universal  abolition.  Great 
Britain  had  the  chief  share  of  the  glory  and  profit  of  that 
event;  it  was  to  her,  in  the  language  of  all  her  subjects,  that 
Europe  owed  its  deliverance;  she  had  rescued  Portugal  and 
Spain;  restored  Ferdinand  to  his  throne,  and  reinstated 
the  house  of  Bourbon  in  France.  Hence,  it  would  be  im 
possible  for  the  governments  of  those  countries  to  resist  her 
solicitations  in  favour  of  Africa;  or,  at  all  events,  to  brave 
her  power,  in  case  she  manifested  a  determination  to  interpose 


SLAVE  TRADE, 


357 


it  as  a  shield  between  that  continent  and  their  ruthless  cupi-  SECT.  IX. 
dity.     The  African  Institution,  in  the  Report  which  I  have  v^~*~w 
last  quoted,  did  not  overlook  the  new  turn  of  affairs.     "  The 
directors,"  said  the  Report,  u  have  long  been  persuaded,  that 
all  that  can  be  effected,  in  inducing  particular  states  to  re 
nounce  the  traffic  in  slaves,  however  important  in  itself,  will 
produce  but  a  very  partial  benefit  to  Africa,  unless,  on  the 
conclusion  of  a  general  peace,  the  renunciation  should  be 
come  general,  and  be  adopted  as  a  part  of  the  standing  policy 
of  the  great  commonwealth  of  Europe.     While  the  war  con 
tinues,  it  is  a  matter  of  no  moment  whether  the  slave  trade 
is  abolished  in  France;  but  it  is  obvious,  that,  if  a  general 
peace  should  leave  the  merchants  of  that  country  at  liberty  to 
renew  their  former  traffic  in  their  fellow-creatures,  little  com 
paratively  will  have  been  achieved  for  Africa  by  all  the  gene 
rous  efforts  of  this  country.     The  present  moment  having 
appeared  to  the  directors  to  be  peculiarly  favourable  to  the 
hope  of  obtaining  a  recognition  of  the  great  principles  of  the 
abolition,  and  even  the  entire  and  unqualified  renunciation  of 
this  nefarious  traffic  by  all  the  great  powers  of  Europe,  they 
have  endeavoured  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  his  majesty's 
ministers,  the  unspeakable  importance  of  establishing  a  gene 
ral  convention  among  the  European  powers,  for  that  purpose." 
To  aid  the  British  negotiators  at  Paris,  the  two  houses  of 
Parliament  voted  unanimously  on  the  2d  of  May,  addresses  to 
the  Prince  Regent,  representing  the  importance  of  a  general 
abolition,  and  their  conviction,  that  unless  it  took  place,  the 
practical  result  of  the  restoration  of  peace  would  be  "  to  open  the 
sea  to  swarms  of  piratical  adventurers  who  would  renew  and 
extend,  on  the  shores  of  Africa,  the  scenes  of  carnage  and  ra 
pine  in  a  great  measure  suspended  by  maritime  hostilities;  to 
kindle  a  thousand  ferocious  wars,"  &c.     In  supporting  the 
address  of  the  House  of  Commons,  Mr.  Wilberforce  truly  re 
marked,  that  "  with  regard  to  France,  the  war  had  practically 
abolished  the  trade,  and  therefore,  if  carried  on  by  her,  it 
would  be  creating  it  anew." 

On  the  30th  May,  1814,  the  treaty  between  Great  Britain 
and  France  was  signed  at  Paris;  and  lo!  France  was  allowed 
a  term  of  five  years  in  which  to  pursue  the  traffic  in  human 
flesh,  and  his  Britannic  Majesty  restored  to  his  most  Christian 
Majesty  all  the  colonies,  factories,  and  establishments,  of  what 
ever  kind,  which  France  possessed  the  1st  of  January,  1792, 
in  the  seas  and  upon  the  continents  of  America,  Africa,  and 
Asia,  with  the  exception  of  the  islands  of  Tobago  and  St, 
Lucia,  and  of  the  Isle  of  France  and  its  dependencies.  This 


358  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.  was  an  electric  shock  for  the  abolitionists  upon  principle,  and 
v-^-v-^'  the  signal  for  a  vigorous  party  assault  upon  the  ministry. 

It  seemed   impossible   to  doubt  that  France  would  have 
yielded,  had  the  immediate  and  total  prohibition  of  the  tradu 
been  made  the  sine  qua  non  of  the  restitution  of  her  colonies; 
or  had  she  been  tempted  with  the  Mauritius.     Her  utter  ina 
bility  to  renew  the  war,  and  the  certainty  that  the  allies  would 
not  have  passed  over  to  her  side  to  enforce  her  pretensions  to 
the  slave  trade,  were  points  on  which  even  the  most  credu 
lous  could  not  be  deceived. 

The  African  Institution  passed  resolutions  of  reprobation , 
petitions  without  number  were  got  up  throughout  the  country 
motions  made  in  Parliament;  and  the  stir  had  on  the  whole 
an  imposing  character.  The  following  is  part  of  the  repre 
sentations  of  the  African  Institution  on  the  occasion.  "A 
provision  is  contained  in  the  recent  treaty  of  peace  with 
France,  the  consequence  of  which  must  be  the  revival  of  tin 
slave  trade  on  a  large  scale,  and  to  an  indefinite  extent.  This 
revival  is  attended  with  circumstances  of  peculiar  aggravation. 
Great  and  populous  colonies,  in  which,  during  the  last  seven 
years,  the  importation  of  slaves  has  been  strictly  prohibited, 
have  been  freely  ceded  to  France,  not  only  without  any  stipu 
lation  for  the  continuance  of  that  prohibition,  but  with  the 
declared  purpose  on  the  part  of  that  country,  of  commencing 
a  new  slave  trade  for  their  supply." 

The  apprehensions  of  the  Institution  did  not  receive  much 
relief  on  the  appearance  of  the  French  slave  trade  ordinance. 
By  a  circular  letter  from  the  administration  of  the  customs, 
dated  29th  August,  the  merchants  of  France  were  apprized, 
that  "  the  traffic  was  restored  in  all  its  privileges,  and  might 
be  carried  on  from  every  port  having  a  public  bonding  ware 
house:— -That  all  the  goods,  foreign  as  well  as  domestic,  in 
cluding  arms  and  ammunition,  required  for  this  trade,  might  be 
shipped  for  the  coast  of  Africa,  duty  free:  That  the  same  pro 
vision  extended  to  the  ship's  provisions,  both  for  the  crew  and 
negroes:  That  the  cargoes  or  provisions  were  not  to  be  em 
ployed,  except  in  the  purchase  and  conveyance  of  negroes: 
That  French  ships  only  could  engage  in  the  trade;  and,  that 
they  might  import  into  all  the  French  colonies,  of  which  the 
government  should  recover  possession,  as  well  as  those  ceded 
by  the  treaty." 

The  language  held  in  Parliament  was  no  less  emphatical 
than  that  of  the  African  Institution.     As  a  specimen,  I  will 
offer  some  extracts  from  the  speech  of  Lord  Grenville. 
'"  That  the  immediate  and  total  abolition  of  the  slave  trade 


SLAVE  TRADE.  359 

might,  in  this  treaty,  if  pursued  with  zeal,  have  been  with  cer-  SECT.IX. 
taiuty  obtained,  is,  unless  I  am  greatly  misinformed,  the  gene-  v^v-^' 
ral  sentiment  of  all  who  are  conversant  in  foreign  negotiation; 
the  concurrent  and  decided  judgment-of  enlightened  statesmen 
in  every  country  in  Europe." 

"What  credulity  will  acquiesce  in  the  pretence,  that  to  extort 
from  France  the  surrender  of  her  conquest,  was  easy;  to  dis 
suade  her  from  the  revival  of  the  slave  trade  impracticable?" 

u  This  treaty  has  secured  to  our  country  commercial  profits, 
and  colonial  acquisitions,  at  the  expense  of  France;  inconside 
rable  in  value,  I  admit  it,  but  still  sufficient  to  brand  our  na 
tional  character  with  the  dishonour  of  interested  guilt.  To 
France  the  renewal  of  the  slave  trade  is  conceded;  into  her 
hands  we  deliver  up  the  wretched  inhabitants  of  Africa;  and 
from  her  in  return  we  receive  back  those  advantages;  the  con 
tract  is  reciprocal;  the  transactions  simultaneous;  included  in 
the  same  treaty,  never  will  they  be  separated  in  the  opinion  of 
mankind." 

"We  have  consented  to  revive  and  guarantee  the  slave  trade, 
not  because  we  feared  war,  but  because  we  thirsted  for  more 
extended  possessions.  Such  will  be  the  just  judgment,  both  of 
the  present  time,  and  of  posterity;  the  opinion  of  impartial  men 
in  all  ages.  If,  they  will  tell  us,  you  could  not  otherwise  refuse 
yourselves  to  a  dishonourable  contract  for  guilt,  you  might 
have  proffered  in  exchange  for  it  the  abandonment  of  these  ac 
quisitions;  an  exchange  which  France  most  certainly  would 
gladly  have  accepted," 

"  You  are  fully  sensible  also,  how  difficult  it  will  be  to  pre 
vent  the  application  of  British  capital  to  this  wickedness  when 
authorized  by  France.  How  large  a  portion  of  this  trade  will 
really  be  carried  on  in  her  name  by  your  own  subjects;  how 
much  of  it  will  be  diverted  to  the  supply  of  your  own  colonies, 
under  a  pretended  destination  to  those  with  which  they  are  so 
closely  intermixed  in  the  West  Indian  seas." 

The  subject  was  taken  up  officially  in  the  Edinburgh  Re 
view,  and  treated  with  as  little  reserve.  The  Reviewers 
cried  out  against  uthe  vile  mockery  of  an  abolition  in  rever 
sion,  expectant  upon  a  five  years  term  of  unstinted,  nay  en 
couraged  slave  trade."  "England,"  they  added,  "has  no 
manner  of  difficulty  in  obtaining  Malta,  Tobago,  St  Lucia, 
the  Isle  of  France,  (not  to  mention  the  Cape);  in  short,  any 
thing  which  may  serve  her  interests;  she  surrenders  Guada- 
loupe,  that  her  islands  may  be  supplied  by  smuggling. " 

Lord  Castlereagh  defended  the  treaty,  upon  the  grounds 
of  "the  strong  objection"  of  the  French  rulers  to  immediate 
abolition,  because' they  would  appear  to  submit  to  English  die- 


369  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PARTf.  talion!  of  the  importance  of  ending  the  negotiation  in  mutual 
respect  and  confidence;  of  the  danger  of  prolonging  the  war  by 
insisting  upon  a  concession  which  France  felt  to  he  dishonour 
able  to  her  character  as  a  nation,  &c.  He  was  "  ready  to 
admit,  that  Guadaloupe  and  Martinique  heing  permitted  to  be 
points  of  depot,  did,  to  a  certain  degree,  increase  the  probabi 
lity  of  an  illicit  trade  being  carried  on  from  those  islands  with 
the  British  colonies.  But  if  France  had  even  consented  to 
abolish  the  trade,  the  number  of  depots  which  would  huire 
otherwise  existed,  was  sufficiently  numerous  for  the  illegal 
introduction  of  slaves  into  the  islands  belonging  to  Great  Bii- 
tain.  .  From  the  Havanna  and  Porto  Rico,  the  possessions  of 
Spain,  slaves  might  very  easily  find  their  way  into  the  British 
colonies."  His  lordship  remarked,  too,  a  point  of  delicacy  is 
to  pressing  the  abolition:  "However  disposed  he  and  the  Bii- 
tish  nation  might  be  to  make  sacrifices  for  it,  he  could  assu-e 
the  house  that  such  was  not  the  impression  in  France,  and 
that  even  among  the  better  classes  of  people  there,  the  British 
government  did  not  get  full  credit  for  their  motives  of  acting. 
The  motives  were  not  there  thought  to  arise  from  benevolence, 
but  from  a  wish  to  impose  fetters  on  French  colonies  and  injure 
their  commerce." 

This  misgiving  of  the  French  was  of  no  fresh  date,  and 
could  not  have  been  altogether  unknown  to  Parliament.  In 
1807,  Lord  Lauderdale,  whom  Mr.  Fox  sent  to  negotiate  with 
Bonaparte  the  preceding  year,  made  the  following  statement 
in  the  House  of  Lords.  "  On  my  urging  to  the  French  minis 
ters  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  I  was  answered,  that  it 
could  not  be  expected  that  the  French  government,  irritated 
as  it  had  been  by  the  negroes  in  St.  Domingo,  would  readily 
agree  to  the  abolition  of  the  trade.  I  answered  that  the  abo 
lition  would  have  been  the  only  effectual  means  of  preventing 
the  horrors  which  had  occurred  in  that  island.  Then  the 
truth  came  out.  I  was  told  that  England,  with  her  colonies 
well  stocked  with  negroes,  and  affording  a  larger  produce, 
might  abolish  the  trade  without  inconvenience;  but  that 
France,  with  colonies  ill-stocked,  and  deficient  in  product, 
could  not  abolish  it  without  conceding  to  us  the  greatest  ad 
vantages,  and  sustaining  a  proportionate  loss."* 

The  transactions  in  England,  and  the  fundamental  policy 
in  the  case,  prompted  the  British  ministry  to  renew  their  in 
stances  with  the  French  government.  An  island,  or  if  pre 
ferable,  a  pecuniary  indemnity  to  the  French  planters,  was 
offered  for  the  immediate  abandonment  of  the  trade,  or  the 

*  Cobbett's  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  viii. 


SLAVE  TRADE. 

rtbridgment  of  the  term  stipulated  by  the  treaty.  It  was  pro-  SECT.IX, 
posed  to  France  to  establish  a  system  of  license,  so  as  to  pre 
vent  the  importation  into  her  colonies  of  more  negroes  than 
would  be  necessary  for  the  existing  plantations,  and  to  preclude 
the  cultivation  of  new  lands.  Lord  Wellington  discovered 
that  there  was  no  disposition  among  the  French  statesmen  to 
relinquish  the  trade  at  once;  but,  finally,  after  a  negotiation, 
the  particulars  of  which  are  not  a  little  curious,  means  were 
found  by  England  to  persuade  the  French  government  to  put 
restrictions  upon  it;  particularly  that  of  confining  it  to  the  south 
of  Cape  Formosa. 

The  first  attempts  upon  the  Spanish  government  bear  date 
in  1814;  but  Ferdinand  was  upon  his-  throne,  and  Spain 
clear  of  the  French.  The  Spanish  monarch  consented  to 
forbid  his  subjects  to  carry  slaves  to  foreign  possessions;  no 
thing  more  could  then  be  obtained,  in  the  way  and  upon  the 
terms  which  suited  the  views  of  England. 

Lord  Castlereagh  made  his  main  effort,  within  the  limits 
prescribed,  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  He  succeeded,  not 
withstanding  the  opposition  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese 
plenipotentiaries,  in  rendering  the  eight  principal  powers,  par 
ties  to  the  settlement  of  the  question.  Four  sittings  were 
specially  assigned  to  its  discussion.  The  fruit  of  the  first, 
the  only  fruit  of  the  whole  arrangement,  was  the  celebrated 
declaration  of  the  8th  of  February,  1815,  in  which  all  the 
powers  proclaimed  their  detestation  of  the  character,  and  their 
desire  to  accomplish  the  abolition,  of  the  slave  trade;  at  the 
same  time  that  they  acknowledged  the  right  of  each  to  take 
its  own  time  for  the  total  relinquishment  on  its  own  part. 
Talleyrand  would  not  consent  to  abridge  the  term  granted  to 
France;  Spain  would  make  no  acceptable  concession:  Por 
tugal  professed  her  readiness  to  limit  the  duration  of  her  trade 
to  eight  years,  provided  his  Britannic  majesty  would  on  his 
side  acquiesce  in  certain  material  changes  in  the  commercial 
relations  between  her  and  Great  Bri'ain.  Some  of  the  general 
observations  made  by  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  plenipo 
tentiaries,  in  reply  to  Lord  Castlereagh,  are  worth  repeating. 
The  first,  Count  Labrador,  said,  "  if  the  Spanish  colonies  of 
America  were,  as  to  the  supply  of  negroes,  in  the  same  state 
as  the  English  colonies,  his  Catholic  majesty  would  not  hesi 
tate  a  moment  in  decreeing  an  immediate  abolition:  But, 
the  question  having  been  before  the  British  parliament  from 
1788  to  1807,  the  English  traders  and  planters  had  full  time 
to  make  extraordinary  purchases  of  slaves;  ancl,  in  lact,  they 
did  so.  This  was  proved  by  the  case  of  Jamaica,  which, 
VOL.  I.— Z  z 


362  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

TART  I.  in  1787,  had  only  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  slave?. 
v-x""v'"Nto*'  whereas,  at  the  period  of  the  abolition,  in  1807,  she  possess 
ed  four  hundred  thousand.  During  the  long  war  with  Eng 
land,  Spain  had  been  deprived  of  the  faculty  of  procuring  ne 
groes  for  herself.  Jamaica  had  ten  blacks  to  one  white;  ii 
the  island  of  Cuba,  the  best  provided  with  slaves  of  all  the 
Spanish  colonies,  there  were  two  hundred  and  seventy-foui 
thousand  whites,  and  only  two  hundred  and  twelve  thousant 
slaves.55 

The  representative  of  Portugal  alleged  that  "  the  position 
of  Brasil  was  particularly  delicate  in  this  matter;  it  was  ai 
immense  country,  which  was  far  from  possessing  the  numbc  • 
of  hands  necessary  for  its  cultivation;  that  a  sudden  stoppage 
in  the  importation  of  negroes  would  be  of  incalculable  mis 
chief,  as  well  for  Brasil  as  for  the  Portuguese  establish 
ments  on  the  coast  of  Africa;  that  the  treatment  of  the  slave  > 
in  Brasil  was  notoriously  mild;  and  that  these  consideration; 
made  the  case  of  Portugal  an  exception;  at  all  events  sh  . 
might  be  excused  if  she  proceeded  leisurely  and  cautiously  m 
the  affair,  since,  in  the  instance  of  England,  so  long  an  inter 
val  had  occurred  between  the  proposal  and  the  adoption  of 
the  measure.55 

The  primary  object  of  Lord  Casllercagh  was  to  secure  from 
the  intrusion  of  foreign  slave  vessels,  that  part  of  the  African 
coast,  which  England  had  marked  out  for  her  general  trade.  In 
the  interval  between  the  first  and  second  general  conference. 
(21st  and  22d  of  January,  1815,)  he  signed  two  conventions 
with  the  plenipotentiary  of  Portugal,  by  which  Great  Britain 
released  the  balance  due  upon  an  old  English  loan  to  Portugal, 
and  allotted  three  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling  as  a  fund 
of  indemnity  for  the  owners  of  the  Portuguese  slave  ships  which 
her  cruizers  had  captured  before  the  1st  of  June,  1814,  on  the 
ground  of  their  being  engaged  in  the  trade  illegally:  She  agreed 
at  the  same  time  to  the  abrogation  of  the  treaty  of  1810:  Por 
tugal,  on  her  part,  covenanted  to  prohibit  her  subjects  from 
carrying  on  the  slave  trade,  in  any  way,  to  the  north  of  the 
equator,  it  being  understood  that  they  were  to  pursue  it  unmo 
lested  to  the  south  of  the  line,  as  long  as  it  should  be  at  all 
permitted  by  the  Portuguese  laws. 

In  a  secret  and  confidential  letter  of  Lord  Castlereagh  to  the 
duke  of  Wellington,  at  Paris,  of  August,  1814,*  his  lordship 
stated,  that  it  was  become  necessary  to  consider  how  far  cer 
tain  Powers  might  be  brought  to  do  their  duty  in  the  matter 

*  See  the  Pieces  Officielles  Ue  Schoell,  vol.  vii.  p.  90. 


SLAVE  TRADE.  353 

of  abolition,  by  a  sense  of  interest;  or,  in  other  words,  how  SECT.  IX. 
they  might  be  deprived  of  the  undue  advantage  which  they  ^^^^^ 
enjoyed  over  the  states  who,  by  a  feeling  of  moral  obligation, 
renounced  the  trade.  Nothing,  he  suggested,  appeared  mort: 
likely  to  work  the  effect,  than  a  concert  among  those  states  to 
exclude  from  their  dominions  the  colonial  produce  of  the 
refractory  powers.  Duke  Wellington  was  instructed  to  sound 
the  prince  of  Benevento  on  the  subject.  The  true  motives  of 
this  plan  did  not,  we  may  presume,  escape  the  penetration  of 
the  latter.  Lord  Castlereagh  proposed  it  anew  at  Vienna 
to  the  emperor  of  Russia,  in  his  formal  interview  with  that 
monarch,  on  the  subject  of  the  slave  trade.  The  abolition 
states  could  not,  he  urged,  do  less  than  adopt  it:  Unless  they 
gave  a  preference  to  such  colonial  products  as  were  not  raised 
by  slaves  newly  introduced,  they  would  be  partakers  in  the 
scandal  and  crime  accompanying  the  growth  of  such  as  were! 
The  British  negotiator  was  indiscreet  enough  to  submit  the 
project  for  adoption,  at  the  conferences  of  the  plenipotentia 
ries;  with  the  modification  that  the  products  of  the  colonies 
in  which  the  trade  was  forbidden,  should  be  alone  receiv 
ed,  or  those  of  the  vast  regions  of  the  globe  furnishing  the 
same  articles  by  the  labour  of  their  own  native  inhabitants, 
meaning,  says  Schoell,f  the  British  possessions  in  the  East 
Indies.  The  ministers  of  Spain  and  Portugal  protested  against 
this  expedient  of  coercion,  and  threatened  that  their  courts 
would  exclude  in  turn  the  most  valuable  export  of  the  countries 
by  which  it  should  be  adopted. 

What  England  could  not  persuade  the  Bourbons  to  do  in 
1814,  Bonaparte  did  spontaneously  on  his  return  from  the 
Island  of  Elba.  He  interdicted  the  French  slave  trade  at 
once,  from  motives  of  personal  interest  which  few  were  at  a 
loss  to  detect.  When  Louis  was  replaced  on  his  throne,  no 
thing  remained  for  him  but  to  submit,  apparently,  to  the  will 
of  the  British  minister  who  escorted  him  into  Paris,  and  who 
required  him  not  at  least  to  retract  the  only  favour  granted  by 
the  arch-tyrant  to  humanity.  Accordingly,  on  the  30th  of 
July,  1815,  Talleyrand  announced  to  Lord  Castlereagh  that 
the  slave  trade  was  thenceforward,  forever,  and  universally, 
forbidden  to  all  the  subjects  of  his  most  Christian  majesty. 
The  tenor  of  the  correspondence  on  the  subject  between  the 
two  viziers  is  among  the  curiosities  of  that  day. 

In  1816,  England  resumed  her  negotiation  with  Spain, 


f  Histoire  abregee  des  Traites  de  Fan,  vol.  xi. 


3(M  IsEGKO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.  and,  finally,  availing  herself  of  the  necessities  of  the  latter, 
^~~v^>  effected  the  treaty  of  Madrid  of  the  23d  Sept.  1817.  By 
this  treaty,  Spain,  for  a  sum  of  four  hundred  thousand  pounds 
sterling,  stipulated  to  renounce  the  slave  trade  at  once  to 
the  north  of  the  line,  and  to  prohibit  it  entirely,  in  all  her  do 
minions,  from  the  30th  May,  1820.  The  sum  of  four  hun 
dred  thousand  pounds  bore  a  small  proportion,  indeed,  to  the 
wealth  which  Britain  had  drawn  from  the  traffic  in  human 
flesh;  or  to  that  which  she  expected  to  derive  from  the  ac 
complishment  of  her  views  on  Africa.*  Bat  the  new  sacri 
fice  was  emblazoned  in  Parliament,  and  the  rescue  of  the 
northern  part  of  that  continent  declared  to  be  consummated. 

"  We  have  now,"  said  Lord  Castlereagh,  "  arrived  at  the 
last  stage  of  our  difficulties,  and  the  last  stage  of  our  exertions. 
One  great  portion  of  the  world  was  rescued  from  the  horrors 
of  the  traffic.  The  approval  of  the  grant  amounted  to  this, 
whether  the  slave  trade  should  be  abolished  or  not." 

Lord  Castlereagh  announced,  on  the  same  occasion,  the 
conclusion  of  a  treaty  with  the  Portuguese  ambassador  in  Lon 
don,  for  the  final  suppression  of  the  Portuguese  slave  trade; 
and  the  certainty  of  its  ratification:  But  his  lordship's  assu 
rance  was  premature.  The  court  of  Brasil  could  not  be  drawn 
into  any  further  retrenchment,  than  was  stipulated  in  the 
treaty  of  Vienna  to  which  I  have  adverted.  Sweden,  who 
had  never  authorized  the  trade,  readily  consented  to  prohibit 
it,  on  receiving  Guadaloupe  in  1813,  in  deposit.  The  king 
of  the  Netherlands  accepted  of  the  condition  of  a  total  renun 
ciation,  attached  to  the  restitution  of  the  Dutch  colonies  in 
1814. 

15.  Before  I  proceed  to  exhibit  the  actual,  and  what — it 
is  to  be  feared  from  late  British  statements,  which  I  shall 
produce, — may  be  considered  as  the  final  result  of  all  these 
boasted  triumphs  for  Africa,  I  wish  to  illustrate  further  the 
English  sins  of  commission.  We  have  seen  that  the 
African  Institution  acknowledges  the  participation  of  Bri~ 


*  In  the  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons,  (Feb.  9th,  1818,)  Mr. 
Wilberforce  said,  "  He  could  not  but  think  that  the  grant  to  Spain 
would  be  more  than  repaid  to  Great  Britain  in  commercial  advantages, 
by  the  opening  of  a  great  continent  to  British  industry;  an  object 
which  would  be  entirely  defeated,  if  the  slave  traffic  was  to  be  carried 
on  by  the  Spanish  nation.  Our  commercial  connexion  with  Africa  will 
do  much  more  than  repay  us  for  any  pecuniary  sacrifices  of  this  kind. 
He  himself  would  see  Great  Britain  deriving  the  greatest  advantages 
from  its  intercourse  with  Africa.'1  Hansard's  Parl  Deb. 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


365 


tish  subjects  in  the  trade,  to  a  great  extent.  The  same  SECT.  ix. 
admission  has  been  made  repeatedly  in  Parliament,  by  the  ^^~^^*^ 
highest  authority.  Before  the  establishment  of  the  peace  of 
1814,  Mr.  Whitbread  stated  in  the  House  of  Commons,  that 
"there  were,  to  his  knowledge,  persons  in  England  base 
enough  to  wish  for  the  return  of  peace,  on  account  of  the 
facilities  it  would  afford  for  carrying  on  the  slave  traffic  under 
another  flag."*  On  the  18th  April,  1815,  Mr.  Barham  alleged 
in  the  same  place,  "  that  it  was  a  well  known  fact  that  a  large 
British  capital  was  employed  in  British  ships,  in  the  slave 
trade."  And  on  the  9th  of  February,  1818,  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  held  this  language  to  Parliament.  "  It  would  be  a  great 
error  to  believe  that  the  reproach  of  carrying  on  the  slave 
trade  illegally,  belonged  only  to  other  countries.  In  numberless 
instances,  he  was  sorry  to  say,  it  had  come  to  his  knowledge, 
that  British  subjects  were  indirectly  and  largely  engaged." 

With  respect  to  the  British  West  India  islands,  it  is  of 
notoriety   that    they   have    been    replenished   with    negroes 
since  the  British  abolition.     In  the  quotations  which  I  have 
made  from  the  Reports  of  the  African  Institution,  the  con 
traband  trade  of  those  islands  is  formally  denounced.     The 
Report  of  that  Society  for  1815,  is  more  pointed  and  circum 
stantial  in  its  declarations  on  the  same  head,  in  relation  to  all 
of  them.     It  gives  us  to  understand  that  twenty  thousand  ne 
groes  had  been  yearly  smuggled  into  them,  and  avers  that 
44  all  of  the  settlements  were  confident  of  having  the  means  of 
providing  themselves  still  with  slaves  in  the  proportion  of  their 
actual  demand;"  that  "  insular  laws,  whose  policy  plainly  de 
pended  on  the  permanence  of  the  slave  trade,  remained  unre- 
pealed;"  that  u  the  assemblies  still  looked  to  Africa  for  the 
supply  of  their  wasting  population."  The  Edinburgh  Review, 
in  expressing  some  incredulity  with  respect  to  the  amount  of 
the  illicit  importation,   intimated  in  the  Report,   remarks, 
however,  that  uto  question  the  fact  of  clandestine  importation 
would  prove  extreme  ignorance  of  West  Indian  morals,  and  of 
the  state  to  which  the  administration  of  the  law  is  of  neces 
sity  reduced,  where  nine  persons  in  ten  of  the  inhabitants  are 
incompetent  witnesses,  and  are,  moreover,  the  property  of  the 
remaining  tenth. "f 

The  same  Report  denies  that  the  slaves,  in  any  one 
island,  had,  in  regard  to  their  legal  condition,  then  derived  the 
least  benefit  from  the  abolition  acts.  It  represents  them,  also, 
as  suffering  the  same  miseries;  as  equally  cut  off  from  all 

*  Debate  of  "May  2d,  1814.  f  No.  50, 


366  WEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  i.  means  of  mental  and  religious  improvement.  In  their  article 
**  upon  this  Report,  the  Edinburgh  Reviewers  ratify  its  exposi 
tion,  and  speak  thus  of  their  u  sugar  planting  brethren:" — 
"  They  not  only  have  taken  no  steps  to  encourage  religions 
instruction,  but  have  again  and  again  attempted  to  prevent  the 
black  population  from  receiving  it,  in  the  only  form  in  which 
it  ever  can  reach  them,  as  things  are  at  present  constitute  I, 
namely,  by  missionary  preachers.  The  zeal  of  pious  nu  n 
was  beginning  to  carry  the  blessings  of  the  gospel  into  tl  c 
settlements,  not  sectaries  merely,  but  Church-of-Englai  d 
missions.  The  wisdom  of  colonial  legislation  took  the  alarm; 
acts  were  regularly  and  in  all  the  forms,  passed,  to  stop,  I  y 
main  force,  all  such  attempts  at  illuminating  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  their  Pagan  subjects.  The  royal  assent  has  be<  n 
refused,  but  they  are  of  sufficient  efficacy  in  the  interval,  ai  d 
as  often  as  one  is  annulled,  another  is  passed.  In  some  of  the 
colonies,  the  impediments  to  manumission  are  enormous.  The 
tax  imposed  by  the  policy  of  the  law  in  those  enlightened  lati 
tudes,  forever  closes  the  door  to  emancipation.  In  Jamaica, 
the  negroes  are  prohibited  from  being  taught,"  &c. 

The  work  of  Dickson  and  Steele,  entitled  Mitigation  of 
Slavery,  of  which  I  have  already  availed  myself,  is  one  of 
great  and  deserved  authority  on  these  subjects.     It  was  pub 
lished  in  London,  in  1814,  and  the  writers,  who  had  long  re 
sided  in  the  West  Indies  in  high  stations,  go  even  beyond  the 
African  Institution  in  their  representations  of  the  nature  of  the 
slavery,  and  of  the  futility  of  the  abolition  acts,  in  that  quarter. 
"  The  abolition,"  says  Dr.  Dickson,  "of  what  is  called  the 
African  slave  trade,  was,  in  itself,  an  object  every  way  wor 
thy  of  the  long  and  arduous  struggle  which  effected  it.     But 
its  relative  value,  as  a  corrective  of  West  Indian  abuses,  hath 
been  greatly  overrated.     The  reader  of  this  volume  will  ste 
distinctly  that,  as  many  of  the  worst  evils  of  the  Wrest  Indian 
slavery  were  owing  to  other  causes  than  the  African  slave 
trade,  those  evils  could  not  possibly  be  remedied  by  the  aboli 
tion  of  that  trade.     This  important  position,  so  solidly  esta 
blished  in  the  first  part  of  the  following  collection,  hath  been 
deplorably  exemplified,  since  the  date  of  the  abolition  act,  in 
the  accounts  of  respectable  individuals;  and  in  the  correspond 
ence  of  the  secretary  of  state  with  the  West  Indian  governors. 
The  facts  alluded  to,  though  but  a  mere  specimen  of  the 
WTest  Indian  slavery,  clearly  show,  that  they  flowed  from  a 
source  inherent  in  that  slavery  itself.     An  additional  proof  is, 
that,  notwithstanding  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  the  low 
price  of  produce,  and  the  exorbitant  price  of  slaves,  (all  strong 


SLAVE  TRADE.  367 

motives  for  economizing  their  lives,)  the  deaths  among  the  SECT.IX. 
slaves  of  one  island,  in  1810,  exceeded  the  births  by  above  ten'  ^^^••••^^^ 
thousand.  No  cause  of  any  extraordinary  mortality  is  alleged; 
but  ibat  surplus  of  deaths  appears  to  have  happened  in  the 
common  course  of  business.  On  the  whole,  we  may  safely 
affirm,  that  the  general  treatment  of  the  slaves,  in  the  old  su 
gar  islands,  has  not  received  any  material  improvement  for  a 
century  and  a  half.  The  new  islands  have  but  copied  the 
old;  with  the  difference,  that  the  hardships  inseparable  from 
the  clearing  of  fresh  lands  have,  in  all  cases,  deplorably  ag 
gravated  the  mortality." 

"  Facts  leave  not  a  doubt  in  the  mind,  that  the  harshness  of 
the  slave  laws  is  but  little  softened  by  the  lenity  of  the  general 
practice  in  any  of  the  sugar  islands.  Bad  is  the  best  treat 
ment  which  the  negroes  experience  in  the  West  India  colo 
nies.  They  all  perform  their  labour  under  the  whip.  Mr. 
Mathison,  that  sensible  and  candid  planter,  states  broadly,  in 
1811,  the  general  practice  of  under-feeding  from  one  end  of 
Jamaica  to  the  other.  He  also  believes  that  excessive  labour 
is  one  of  the  prevailing  causes  of  depopulation  among  the 
slaves  on  that  island." 

The  registry  system  for  the  West  Indies,  is  grounded 
upon  the  inefficacy  of  the  abolition  there;  and,  so  far  as 
appears  by  the  facts  disclosed  in  the  House  of  Commons,  the 
one  has  be.cn  found  as  nugatory  as  the  other.*  We  may  take 
an  instance  from  the  mouth  of  Mr.  Wilberforce,  of  the  state 
of  things  in  Barbadoes,  where,  according  to  Dr.  Dickson,f 
slavery,  is  not  near  so  bad  as  in  most  of  the  other  islands. 

"  Mr.  Wilberforce  said,  (April  22d,  1818,)  that  the  situa 
tion  of  the  slaves  in  Barbadoes  was  most  wretched.  Lord 
Seaforth,  when  governor  of  the  island,  endeavoured  to  improve 
it  by  procuring  a  law  to  render  the  murder  of  a  slave  capital. 
The  island  was  at  first  enraged  with  the  governor  for  pro 
posing  such  a  measure.  When  it  was  consented  to,  and  the 
friends  of  humanity  in  this  country  were  led  to  believe  that 
the  condition  of  the  slaves  in  that  island  was  much  bettered, 
what  was  their  surprise  and  disappointment,  to  find  in  two 
years  after,  when  this  law  was  laid  upon  the  table  of  the 
house,  that  it  was  rendered  entirely  nugatory  by  a  condition 
annexed  to  it;  for  it  was  provided,  that  the  murder  to  bo 
capital  must  be  unprovoked." 

*  See,  on  this  head,  the  Twelfth  Report  of  the  African  Institution, 
p.  42. 

f-  Mitigation  of  Steven',  p.  51? 


3G8 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 


PART  i.  "  There  were  cases,"  Mr.  Wilberforce  continued,  u  in  whic  i 
v->F^r>l*-/  a  negro  had  purchased  his  freedom,  and  the  freedom  of  his 
children,  and  trained  them  up  with  the  most  exemplary  care, 
yet  his  offspring  had  afterwards  been  seized  on  by  the  creditors 
of  his  deceased  master,  because  he  had  died  an  insolvent,  and 
had  been  thus  transported  even  to  the  mines  of  Mexico."* 

With  such  testimony  as  we  have  seen,  notoriously  extant, 
concerning  the  importation  of  negroes  into  the  British  West 
Indies,  and  their  general  condition,  after  the  abolition  act, 
the  British  minister,  Lord  Castlereagh,  ventured,  in  his  cor 
respondence  with  the  foreign  powers  in  the  year  1814,1  to 
make  the  following  representation.  "  The  experience  of  eight 
years  which  have  elapsed  since  the  total  abolition  of  the  slavo 
trade,  as  far  as  that  depended  on  Great  Britain,  by  the  Par 
liament  of  the  United  Kingdom,  has  furnished  complete  proof 
that  the  settlements  in  the  West  Indies  have  not  suffered  by 
the  want  of  fresh  supplies  of  African  labourers.  These  colo 
nies  continue  to  be  in  a  flourishing  condition,  and  since  there, 
has  been  no  new  importation  of  slaves,  the  treatment  of  those 
already  possessed  has  improved,  and  tJie  lights  of  religion  and 
civilization  have  been  diffused  among  them." 

Another  striking  case  of  ministerial  hardihood  is  furnisher* 
in  the  following  extract  from  a  speech  of  Mr.  Goulbourn,  or- 
the  production  of  the  Registry  returns  to  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  on  the  9th  June,  1819.  "The  apparent  increase  ol' 
negro  population  had  not  arisen  from  any  illegal  importation 
of  slaves  into  our  colonies,  but  was  attributable  to  othei 
causes.  It  might  appear  extraordinary  that  in  one  island  the. 
colonial  slaves  had  increased,  in  the  course  of  two  years,  up 
wards  of  five  thousand.  Some  of  these  might  be  the  produce 
of  certain  captures;^,  but  he  was  perfectly  convinced  that  the 
augmentation  was  not  attributable  to  any  illegal  traffic!" 

Representations  of  this  sort,  in  the  face  of  those  of  the 
African  Institution,  in  defiance  of  all  fact  and  reason,  belong 
to  the  old  system  which  is  exemplified  in  the  following  passage 
of  Mills'  History  of  British  India. 

"  When  the  opinions  which  Lord  Cornwallis  expressed  ol 
the  different  departments  of  the  Indian  government,  at  the 
time  when  he  undertook  his  reforms,  (1790,)  are  attended  to. 
it  will  not  be  easy  to  conceive  a  people  suffering  more  intensel) 

*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates. 

f  Official  letter  to  the  British  minister  at  Madrid,  15th  July,  1814. 
t  That  is  to  say,  of  foreign  slave  ships,  whose  cargoes  have'been  sole 
in  the  British  islands. 


SLAVE  TRADE.  369 

by  the  vices  of  government.     The  administration  of  justice  SECT.iX. 
through  all  its  departments  in  a  state  the  most  pernicious  and  ^-^-^ 
depraved;  the  public  revenue  levied  upon  principles  incompati 
ble  with  the  existence  of  private  property;  the  people  sunk  in 
poverty  and  wretchedness;  such  is  the  picture  on  the  one  hand: 
— Pictures  of  an  unexampled  state  of  prosperity  were,  neverthe 
less^  the  pictures  held  forth  at  this  very  moment,  by  speeches  in 
parliament,  to  the  parliament  and  the  nation, — and  the  flattering 
pictures,  as  they  were  the  pictures  of  the  minister,  governed  the 
belief  of  parliament,  and  through  parliament  that  of  the  nation"* 

16.  The  strain  of  the  communications  of  the  British  go 
vernment,  respecting  the  slave  trade,  to  the  foreign  powers, 
down  to  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  with  Spain,  in  1817, 
implied  that  every  thing  would  be  accomplished  for  the  por 
tion  of  Africa  north  of  the  line,  when  the  abolition  was  uni 
versal  with  regard  to  that  portion.  At  every  new  arrangement, 
a  descant  was  chaunted  in  Parliament,  to  the  triumphant  and 
generous  zeal  of  the  ministry,  who,  by  the  progressive  deca 
pitation  of  "  the  hydra,"  had  nearly  crowned  all  the  generous 
sacrifices  of  Britain  with  the  expected  reward,  in  the  security 
of  Africa  and  the  reformation  of  Europe.  But  there  was 
reason  to  suspect  that  Louis  XVIII.  would  not  so  easily  have 
made  a  virtue  of  necessity  in  1815;  nor  Ferdinand, — urgent 
as  were  his  pecuniary  wants,  and  comparatively  unimportant 
as  the  acquisition  of  negroes  had  become  to  Spain  from  the 
revolt  of  her  colonies, — have  prescribed  so  near  a  term  to  the 
legal  slave  trade  of  his  subjects;  had  not  these  monarchs  been 
assured  of  an  abundant  and  ready  supply  where  it  should  be 
wanted,  whatever  anathemas  and  engagements  might  be  ex 
torted  from  them  by  the  ascendant  position  and  plausible  re 
clamations  of  Great  Britain.  All  that  circumstances  made  it 
natural  to  suspect,  and  rendered,  indeed,  obviously  certain, 
has  been  realized,  and  is  now  at  length  proclaimed  by  the 
British  government  itself.  As  the  political  scheme  has  reach 
ed  a  crisis  when  a  full  and  vivid  disclosure  of  the  truth  is  ne 
cessary  for  progression  and  complete  success,  it  is  acknow 
ledged  outright,  and  vehemently  bewailed,  that  nothing  has  as 
yet  been  accomplished  for  Africa,  practically;  that  the  slave 
trade  has  been  constantly  increasing,  and  that  no  limits  can 
be  descried  to  its  duration  or  its  depredations.  Such  is  the 
purport  of  the  thirteenth  Report,  dated  24th  March,  1819,  of 
the  African  Institution;  a  report  which  bears  intrinsically  the 

*  Book  VI.  vol.  iii.p.  334. 

VOL.  I.— 3  A 


370  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.  character  of  a  government-manifesto  ;  and  which  furnishes 
v-^-v-^'  materials  to  complete  a  skeleton  of  the  history  of  I  he  abolition 
I  will  use  it  freely  in  detailing  the  result  of  the  British  ma 
nagement  as  respects  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  severally, 
and  the  main  ostensible  object  of  retribution  to  Africa. 

And  first,  with  regard  to  France.  In  the  Appendix  to  the 
Report,  there  is  an  eloquent,  address  on  the  subject  of  the 
slave  trade,  to  the  Congress  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  which  is  said 
to  have  been  distributed  there  by  Mr.  Clarkson,  during  the 
sittings  in  November,  1818.  This  address  is  evidently  the 
work  of  the  African  Institution,  under  the  direction  of  the 
British  ministry;  and  the  distribution  of  it  an  expedient  of 
both  for  their  joint  and  several  purposes.  It  contains  the  fol 
lowing  statement  as  to  the  French  trade. 

"  No  sooner  was  peace  proclaimed,  than  the  traders  in  hu 
man  blood  hastened  from  various  quarters  to  the  African 
shores,  and,  with  a  cupidi*y  sharpened  by  past  restraint,  re 
newed  their  former  crimes." 

"  Among  the  rest,  the  slave  merchants  of  France,  who  had 
been  excluded  for  upwards  of  twenty  years,  from  any  direct 
participation  in  this  murderous  traffic,  now  eagerly  resumed 
it;  and  to  this  very  hour,  they  continue  openly  to  carry  it  on, 
notwithstanding  the  solemn  renunciation  of  it  by  their  own 
government,  in  1815,  and  the  prohibitory  French  laws  which 
nave  since  been  passed  to  restrain  them." 

"  The  revival  and  progress  of  the  French  slave  trade  have, 
in  one  respect,  been  peculiarly  opprobrious,  and  attended  with 
aggravated  cruelty  and  mischief." 

u  During  the  ten  years  which  preceded  the  restoration  oi 
Senegal  and  Goree  to  France,  no  part  of  the  African  coast} 
Sierra  Leone  excepted,  had  enjoyed  so  entire  an  exemption 
from  the  miseries  produced  by  the  slave  trade  as  those  settle 
ments,  and  the  country  in  their  vicinage." 

"  The  suppression  of  the  traffic  was  there  nearly  complete, 
and,  in  consequence,  a  striking  increase  of  population  and  oJ 
agriculture  in  the  surrounding  districts,  with  a  proportionate 
improvement  in  other  respects,  gave  a  dawn  of  rising  prospe 
rity  and  happiness,  highly  exhilarating  to  every  benevolent 
mind." 

"  It  was  in  the  month  of  January,  1817,  that  these  interest 
ing  settlements  were  restored  to  France;  and  melancholy., 
indeed,  had  been  the  effects:  no  sooner  was  the  transfer  com 
pleted,  than,  in  defiance  of  the  declarations  by  which  the  kina 
of  France  had  prohibited  the  slave  trade  to  his  subjects,  thaf 
trade  was  instantly  renewed,  and  extended  in  all  directions 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


371 


The  ordinary  excitements  to  the  native  chiefs,  have  produced  SECT.  IX. 
more  than  the  ordinary  horrors.  In  the  short  space  of  a  single  s^-v^*-- 
year,  after  the  change  of  flags,  the  adjoining  countries,  though 
previously  tiourishing  in  peace  and  abundance,  exhibited  but 
one  frightful  spectacle  of  misery  and  devastation." 

"  Now,  let  it  here  be  recollected,  that  France  had  profess 
ed,  in  the  face  of  the  civilized  world,  her  abhorrence  of  this 
guilty  commerce.  In  the  definitive  treaty  of  the  30th  of  No 
vember,  1815,  she  had  pledged  herself  'to  the  entire  and 
effectual  abolition  of  a  traffic  so  odious  in  itself,  and  so  highly  • 
repugnant  to  the  laws  of  religion  and  nature.'  As  early  as 
the  30th  of  July,  1815,  she  had  informed  the  ambassadors  of 
the  allied  powers,  that  directions  had  actually  been  issued, 
c  in  order  that  on  the  part  of  France  the  traffic  in  slaves  might 
cease  from  that  time,  every  where  and  for  ever.'  She  had, 
even  previously  to  this,  assured  the  British  government,  that 
the  settlements  of  Senegal  and  Goree,  restored  to  her  by  treaty, 
should  not  be  made  subservient  to  the  revival  of  the  slave 
trade.  Yet,  notwithstanding  all  this,  no  sooner  do  these  set 
tlements  revert  to  her  dominion,  than  the  work  of  rapine,  and 
carnage,  and  desolation  commence;  every  opening  prospect  of 
improvement  is  crushed;  thousands  of  miserable  captives,  of 
every  age  and  sex,  are  crowded  into  the  pestilential  holds  of 
slave  ships,  and  subjected  to  the  well  known  horrors  of  the 
middle  passage,  in  order  to  be  transported  to  the  French  colo 
nies  in  the  West  Indies.  There,  such  of  them  as  may  survive, 
are  doomed  to  pass  their  lives  in  severe  and  unremitting  labour, 
exacted  from  them  by  the  merciless  lash  of  the  cart-whip  in 
the  hands  of  a  driver.  It  would  admit  of  proof,  that  proba 
bly  at  no  period  of  the  existence  of  this  opprobrious  traffic, 
has  Africa  suffered  more  intensely  from  its  ravages  than  dur 
ing  a  part  of  the  time  which  has  elapsed  since  the  re-establish 
ment  of  the  peace  of  the  civilized  world." 

In  another  part  of  the  Appendix,  it  is  averred,  and  sufficient 
ly  proved  to  the  date  of  September,  1818,  that  the  French 
authorities  in  Africa  allow  the  slave  trade  to  be  carried  on  to 
any  extent,  under  their  command;  that  in  Senegal  and  Goree, 
they  themselves  are  interested  in  carrying  it  on;  and  that  the 
French  vessels  of  war  connive  at  the  departure  of  slave  ships. 
In  the  body  of  the  Report,  positive  information  to  the  same 
effect,  is  announced  in  this  language — "  The  subscribers  to 
the  Institution  will  no  doubt  recollect  the  painful  task  which 
devolved  upon  the  directors  last  year,  in  detailing  the  state  of 
the  slave  trade  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  more  particularly 
that  part  of  it  which  lies  in  the  neighbourhood  ef  the  French 


-**  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.  settlements  of  Senegal  and  Goree.  Of  the  statements  then 
v"^v""x>*/  made,  ample  confirmation  has  since  been  received,  accompa 
nied  by  additional  information  of  a  similarly  distressing  na 
ture.  A  considerable  slave  trade  appears  also  to  have  been 
carried  on  by  French  subjects  at  Aliredra,  and  other  places  in 
the  river  Gambia.  The  information,  indeed,  which  the  direc 
tors  have  received  subsequently  to  their  last  Report,  confirms 
the  statement  therein  contained,  of  the  existence,  to  a  great 
extent,  of  this  traffic  in  the  French  settlements  on  the  coast 
•of  Africa,"  &c. 

So  much  for  the  unconditional  restoration  of  the  French 
possessions,  and  the  five  years  charter  for  organized  kidnapping 
and  murder! 

In  the  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons,  of  February  9th, 
1818,  which  I  have  already  mentioned,  some  curious  particu 
lars  were  disclosed  respecting  the  French  slave  trade,  that  de 
serve  to  be  known,  in  addition  to  the  above.  I  will  report 
them  as  they  were  stated  by  Sir  James  Mackintosh.  "  It 
being  discovered  that  the  trade  was  still  carried  on  by  France 
with  great  vigour,  application  was  made  by  Sir  Charles 
Stewart,  the  British  ambassador,  in  January,  1817,  for  co 
pies  of  '  Laws,  Ordinances,  Instructions,  and  other  public 
acts,  for  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade.'  The  Due  de 
Richelieu  had  nothing  to  communicate  but  a  mere  colonial 
regulation  passed  eight  days  before,  prohibiting  the  importation 
of  slaves  into  the  French  colonies.  Notwithstanding  the  as 
sertion  of  Prince  Talleyrand's  letter,  in  spite  of  the  more 
solemn  affirmation  of  the  treaty,  it  appears  that  France  had 
taken  no  legal  measure  for  the  abolition,  during  eighteen 
months,  after  she  professed  she  had  adopted  it.  What  she  did 
at  that  time  was  imperfect,  and  it  did  not  appear  that  she  had 
done  any  thing  since."  So  little  had  she  done,  indeed,  that  Sir 
William  Scott  found  himself  obliged  to  release,  in  1817,  a 
French  slave  ship  detained  by  a  British  cruiser,  on  the  ground 
that  there  was  no  sufficient  proof  that  the  French  vessel,  in 
carrying  on  the  slave  trade,  had  violated  the  laws  of  France. 

Let  us  now  see  how  the  case  stands  with  respect  to  Spain 
and  Portugal,  whom  it  would  have  been  so  easy  to  subdue  to 
the  purpose  of  abolition,  ten  years  ago,  and  the  mischiefs  of 
whose  legal  appearance  in  the  trade,  might,  therefore,  have 
been  averted.  The  Appendix  to  the  Report  contains  a  series 
of  queries,  dated  December,  1816,  addressed  by  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  to  the  Institution,  respecting  the  state  of  the  trade  during 
the  preceding  twenty-five  years.  Part  of  the  information  com 
municated  in  reply  is  as  follows:  "The  number  of  slaves 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


373 


withdrawn  from  western  Africa  during  the  last  twenty-five  SECT.IX. 
years,  is  necessarily  involved  in  much  uncertainty.  There  is  ^^-**»s 
reason  to  believe  that  the  export  of  the  Portuguese  was  much 
more  considerable  than  the  amount  supposed,  15,000.  Pre 
vious  to  the  British  abolition,  the  Portuguese  had  confined  their 
trade  almost  entirely  to  the  Bight  of  Benin,  and  the  coast  to  the 
southward  of  it,  but  in  consequence  of  the  reduction  in  the 
price  of  slaves  on  the  Windward  and  Gold  Coasts,  they  were 
gradually  drawn  thither.  The  whole  of  the  slave  trade,  whe 
ther  legal  or  contraband,  passes,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
under  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  flags.  The  Spanish  flag  is 
a  mere  disguise,  and  covers  the  property  of  unlawful  traders, 
whether  English,  American,  or  others." 

"  Since  the  Portuguese  have  been  restricted  by  treaty  from 
trading  for  slaves  on  certain  parts  of  the  African  coast,  they 
have  resorted  to  similar  expedients  for  protecting  their  slave 
trade  expeditions  to  places  within  the  prohibited  district. 
And  at  the  present  moment,  there  is  little  doubt,  that  a  consi 
derable  part  of  the  apparently  Spanish  slave  trade,  which  is 
carrying  on  to  the  north  of  the  equator,  where  the  Portuguese 
are  forbidden  to  buy  slaves,  is  really  a  Portuguese  trade." 

"  A  farther  use  is  now  found  for  the  Spanish  flag,  in  pro 
tecting  the  French  slave  traders;  and  it  is  affirmed,  that  the 
French  ships  fitted  out  in  France,  for  the  slave  trade,  call  at 
Corunnafor  the  purpose  of  effecting  a  nominal  transfer  of  the 
property  engaged  in  the  illegal  voyage,  to  some  Spanish  house, 
and  thus  obtaining  the  requisite  evidence  of  Spanish  owner 
ship." 

"  In  consequence  of  these  uses  to  which  the  Spanish  flag 
has  been  applied,  a  great  increase  of  the  apparently  Spanish 
slave  trade  has  taken  place  of  late.  And  as  the  flag  of  that 
nation  is  permitted  to  range  over  the  whole  extent,  of  the  Afri 
can  coast,  it  seems  to  keep  alive  the  slave  trade  in  places 
from  which  it  would  otherwise  have  been  shut  out;  and  it  has 
of  late  revived  that  trade  in  situations  where  it  had  been  pre 
viously  almost  wholly  extinguished." 

"  The  Portuguese  flag  is  now  chiefly  seen  to  the  south  of 
the  equator,  although  sometimes  the  Portuguese  traders  do 
not  hesitate  still  to  resort  to  the  rivers  between  Whydaer  and 
the  equator,  even  without  a  Spanish  disguise.  The  only  two 
cruisers  which  have  recently  visited  that  part  of  the  coast, 
found  several  ships  under  the  Portuguese  flag  openly  trading 
for  slaves,  in  Sago  and  the  Bight  of  Benin." 

"The  slave  trade  has  certainly  been  carried  on  during  the 
last  two  years,  to  a  great  extent  north  of  the  equator.  The 


374 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 


PART  i.  native  chiefs  and  traders  who  began  to  believe  at  length  that 
'^^v-^x  the  abolition  was  likely  to  be  permanently  maintained,  have 
learnt  from  recent  events  to  distrust  all  such  assurances. 
Notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said  and  done,  they  row 
see  the  slave  traders  again  sweeping  the  whole  coast  without 
molestation.  It  would  be  difficult  fully  to  appreciate  the  deep 
and  lasting  injury  inflicted  on  northeVn  Africa,  by  the  trans 
actions  of  ihe  last  two  or  three  years.  An  abolition  on  the 
part  of  Spain  would  at  once  deliver  the  whole  of  northern 
Africa  from  the  slave  trade,  provided  effectual  measures  uere 
taken  to  seize  and  punish  illicit  traders.  By  the  prolongation 
of  the  Spanish  slave  trade,  on  the  contrary,  not  only  is  the 
whole  of  northern  Africa,  which  would  otherwise  be  exempt, 
given  up  to  the  ravages  of  that  traffic,  and  the  progress  already 
made  in  improvement  sacrificed,  but  facilities  are  afforded  of 
smuggling  into  every  island  of  the  West  Indies;  which  could 
not  otherwise  exist,  and  which,  while  slave  ships  may  law 
fully  pass  from  Africa  to  Cuba,  it  would,  perhaps,  be  impos 
sible  to  prevent." 

This  was  the  state  of  things,  according  to  the  Institution, 
at  the  end  of  1816.  We  will  now  see  what  it  was  at  the 
beginning  of  the  present  year,  notwithstanding  the  conven 
tions  signed  with  Spain  and  Portugal  in  the  interval.  "  The 
African  slave  trade,"  says  the  Report  itself,  "  is  still  unhappily 
carried  on  to  an  enormous  extent  under  the  foreign  flags,  with 
aggravated  horrors.  The  directors  have  to  lament  the  enor 
mous  extent,  not  of  the  French  slave  trade  only;  that  of  Spain 
and  Portugal  appears  also  to  have  greatly  increased.  Not 
withstanding  the  great  pecuniary  sacrifices  made  by  Great 
Britain  to  these  nations,  their  subjects  are  stated  by  the  go 
vernor  of  Sierra  Leone  to  be  now  deeper  in  blood  than  ever." 
The  Report  mentions  the  fact,  that  at  the  distance  of  more 
than  a  year  from  the  date  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  con 
ventions,  the  British  naval  commander  in  chief  on  the  African 
coast  had  received  no  instructions  as  to  the  measures  to  be 
taken  in  pursuance  of  them,  nor  as  yet  had  any  commission 
been  established,  as  they  prescribed. 

The  estimate  which  the  directors  make  in  the  Appendix 
to  the  Report,  of  the  number  of  negroes  transported  of  late 
years  from  Africa  under  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  flags, 
falls  greatly  short  of  the  real  amount.  Dr.  Thorpe,  whose 
testimony,  on  this  head,  is  certainly  entitled  to  weight,  has 
made  some  statements  which  agree  better  with  the  direct 
knowledge  which  we  have  in  this  country,  of  the  importation 
into  the  Spanish  islands  and  into  Brasil.  He  alleges  that  the 


SLAVE  TRADE.  375 

commissioners  appointed  by  the  British  government  to  survey  SECT.  IX. 
the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  three  years  after  it  had  abolished  ^^~^*~' 
the  trade,  reported  eighty  thousand  as  the  number  of  negroes 
annually  carried  away,  and  divided  equally  between  (he  Por 
tuguese  and  Spaniards.  He  computes,  himself,  from  returns 
made  by  persons  residing  in  the  Havanna,  in  the  Brasils,  and 
on  the  coast  of  Africa,  that  the  Spaniards  carried  from  the 
West  Coast,  in  1817,  one  hundred  thousand;  and  the  Portu 
guese  not  less.  He  adds  forty  thousand  as  the  number  taken 
by  other  nations,  and  from  other  parts  of  that  quarter  of  the 
globe.  There  is  something  almost  overpowering  for  a  real 
philanthropist  in  the  observations  with  which  this  writer  con 
cludes  his  calculations.  "As  it  appears  that  in  1807,  about 
sixty  thousand  inhabitants  of  Africa  were  annually  enslaved, 
and  in  1817  two  hundred  and  forty  thousand,  we  may  judge 
of  her  present  deplorable  condition,  when  the  very  cause  of 
her  barbarous  and  degraded  state  has  increased  four-fold;  we 
should  recollect  the  unshaken  testimony  presented  to  Parlia 
ment,  which  established  her  miserable  condition  before  1807; 
and  we  cannot  but  lament  that  all  the  professions  for  her  hap 
piness,  and  promises  for  her  civilization,  reiterated  since  that 
time,  have  been  perfectly  delusive."* 

Dr.  Thorpe  asserts,  also,  that  at  the  time  Great  Britain  had 
the  right  of  search,  nineteen  out  of  twenty  of  the  contraband 
slave  vessels  escaped.  One  cannot  but  think  that  their  success 
would  not  have  been  quite  so  great,  had  her  cruizers  exercised 
the  same  zeal  and  vigilance  in  pursuing  them,  as  they  did  in 
hunting  down  the  commerce  of  the  United  Slates,  under  the 
Orders  in  Council. 

In  the  first  negotiations  respecting  the  trade,  which  Lord 
Castlereagh  opened  with  the  French  cabinet  after  the  treaty 
of  1814,  he  suggested,  as  a  desirable  arrangement,  the  con 
cession  of  a  mutual  right  of  search  and  capture  in  certain 
latitudes,  between  France  and  Great  Britain,  in  order  to  pre 
vent  an  illicit  exportation  from  the  coast  of  Africa.  The 
Duke  of  Wellington  made  the  proposition  to  the  Prince  of 
Benevento,  but  soon  discovered  that  it  was  "  too  disagreeable 
to  the  French  government  and  nation,  to  admit  of  a  hope  of 
its  being  urged  with  success."!  I  do  not  find  from  the  history 
of  the  conferences  at  Vienna  in  1815,  that  it  was  more  than 
hinted  in  those  conferences.  Spain  and  Portugal,  however,  * 
in  their  mock  renunciation  of  the  trade  north  of  the  equinoc- 

*  P.  13.    View  of  the  Increase  of  the  Slave  Trade. 

f  See  his  letter  to  Lord  Castlereagh  of  the  5th  Nov.  1814. 


376 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 


PART  r.  tial  line,  acceded  to  a  stipulation  of  like  tenor.  Great  satis- 
^^^^*"/ faction  was  expressed  in  Parliament  with  the  arrangement, 
when  the  Spanish  treaty  came  under  discussion.  "  The  >n- 
troduction  of  the  right  of  search  and  bringing  in  for  condem 
nation  in  time  of  peace,"  was  declared  to  be  u  a  precedent  of 
the  utmost  importance."  Of  this  precedent  the  British  rai- 
nister  resolved  to  avail  himself  at  once.  There  is  a  quasi 
official  exposition  of  his  proceedings  in  the  thirteenth  Report 
of  the  African  Institution,  of  which  I  will  abstract  as  much 
as  may  convey  a  sufficient  idea  of  the  new  turn  given  to  ihe 
question  of  abolition. 

The  ministers  of  the  great  powers  were  assembled  in  Lon 
don  to  confer  on  the  subject:  all  attended  readily  except  the 
representative  of  Portugal,  who  consented  to  appear  only  on 
condition  of  a  perfect  freedom  of  action  being  left  to  his  so 
vereign.  At  a  meeting  held  in  February,  1818,  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  produced  a  note,  which  alleged,  among  other  things, 
That,  since  the  peace,  a  considerable  revival  of  the  slave  trade 
had  taken  place,  especially  north  of  the  line,  and  (that  the 
traffic  was  principally  of  the  illicit  description: — That,  as 
early  as  July,  1816,  a  circular  intimation  had  been  given  to 
all  British  cruizers,  that  the  right  of  search  (being  a  bellige 
rent  right)  had  ceased  with  the  war: — That  it  was  proved  be 
yond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt,  that  unless  the  right  to  visit 
vessels  engaged  in  the  slave  trade  should  be  established  by 
mutual  concessions  on  the  part  of  the  maritime  states,  the 
illicit  traffic  must  not  only  continue  to  subsist,  but  increase: 
That  even  if  the  traffic  were  universally  abolished,  and  a  single 
state  should  refuse  to  submit  its  flag  to  the  visitation  of  vessels  of 
other  states,  nothing  effectual  would  have  been  done:  That  the 
plenipotentiaries  should,  therefore,  enter  into  an  engagement 
to  concede  mutually  the  right  of  search,  ad  hoc,  to  their  ships 
of  war,  &c.  They  did  not  deem  themselves  authorised  to 
proceed  so  far,  but  undertook  to  transmit  the  proposition  to 
their  respective  courts. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  American  minister  was  invited 
to  be  a  party  to  these  conferences.  To  him,  however,  Lord 
Cas'lereagh  addressed  a  special  letter  in  the  month  of  June, 
1818,  enclosing  copies  of  the  treaties  made  with  Spain  and 
Portugal,  and  inviting  the  government  of  the  United  States 
*  to  enter  into  the  plan  digested  in  those  treaties,  for  the  repres 
sion  of  the  slave  trade,  which  must,  otherwise,  prove  irreduci 
ble.  The  answer  of  the  American  government,  communicated 
at  the  end  of  December  by  ihe  American  ambassador,  is  de 
tailed  in  the  Report  of  the  Institution.  It  asserts  the  deep  and 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


377 


unfeigned  solicitude  of  the  United  States,  for  the  universal  SECT.  IX. 
extirpation  of  the  slave  trade;  but,  with  all  due  comity,  de-  ^~^~^ 
clines  the  proposed  arrangements,  as   being  of  a  character 
"  not  adapted  to  the  circumstances  or  institutions  of  the  Uni 
ted  States.5'     Truly,  the  United  States  had  sufficiently  proved 
the  British  right  of  search  in  time  of  war,  to  be  careful  not 
to  create  one  for  the  season  of  peace. 

No  answer  had  been  received  from  the  courts  whose  minis 
ters  attended  the  conferences  in  London,  when  the  congress 
of  Aix-la-Chapelle  furnished  the  British  government  with  the 
fairest  opportunity  of  pushing  the  adoption  of  its  whole  pro 
ject.  Thither,  on  the  heels  of  Lord  Castlereagh,  Mr.  Clark- 
son  repaired  with  the  memorial,  which  I  have  already  cited. 
It  stated  to  the  assembled  sovereigns — That,  u  in  point  of  fact, 
little  or  no  progress  had  been  made  in  practically  abolishing 
the  slave  trade:"  That  "  all  the  declarations  and  engagements 
of  the  European  powers  as  to  abolition,  must  prove  perfectly 
unavailing,  unless  new  means  were  adopted:"  That  the  only 
means  left  were — the  universal  concession  of  the  mutual 
right  of  search  and  detention;  and  the  solemn  proscription  of 
the  slave  trade,  as  Piracy  under  the  law  of  nations. 

Lord  Castlereagh's  official  representations  were  of  the  same 
purport,  and  were  answered  in  separate  notes  from  the  pleni 
potentiaries  of  Russia,  France,  Austria,  and  Prussia.  The 
respondents  profess  their  readiness  to  make  a  combined  address 
to  the  court  of  Brasil,  in  order  to  engage  it  to  accelerate,  as 
much  as  the  circumstances  and  necessities  of  its  situation  may 
permit,  the  entire  abolition  of  the  trade;  but  all  reject  the 
proposition  of  a  mutual  right  of  search,  that  new  sine  qua  nan 
of  the  salvation  of  Africa.  France,  whose  concurrence,  ac 
cording  to  Lord  Castlereagh,  was,  "  above  all  others,  import 
ant,"  gave  the  most  peremptory  refusal;  and  suggested,  on 
her  side,  a  plan  of  common  police  for  the  trade,  which  would 
enable  the  several  powers  to  know  the  transactions  of  each 
other,  and  would  keep  each  government  well  apprized  of  all 
abuses  within  its  jurisdiction.  Upon  the  emperor  Alexander, 
both  Lord  Castlereagh  and  the  directors  of  the  African  Insti 
tution  had  counted,  as  a  sure  and  irresistible  auxiliary.  The 
"  unkindest  cut,"  however,  would  seem  to  have  come  from 
his  Russian  Majesiy.  The  answer  of  his  plenipotentiary  was 
fitted  to  produce  a  double  disconcertion;  and  might  be  sus 
pected  of  a  little  malice  in  the  design.  Besides  alleging  that 
it  appeared  to  the  Russian  cabinet,  beyond  a  doubt,  that  ihere 
were  some  states  which  no  consideration  would  induce  to 
submit  their  navigation  to  a  principle  of  such  high  importance 

VOL.  I.— 3  B 


378 


NEGRO  SLAVER*  AND 


PART  I.  «  as  the  i  ight  of  visit,"  he  proposed  an  expedient  to  effect  the 
v^v"^''  common  purpose,  which  went  to  deprive  England  of  her  sway, 
and  unembarrassed  action,  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa.  This 
expedient  consisted  in  "  an  institution,  the  seat  of  which 
should  be  a  central  point  on  that  coast,  and  in  the  forma 
tion  of  which  all  the  Christian  states  should  take  a  part." 
It  is  thus  particularly  described  in  the  Russian  note:  a  De 
clared  for  every  neutral,  to  be  estranged  from  all  political  and 
local  interests,  like  the  fraternal  and  Christian  alliance,  ot 
which  it  would  be  a  practical  manifestation,  this  institution 
would  pursue  the  single  object  of  strictly  maintaining  the 
execution  of  the  law.  It  would  consist  of  a  maritime  force, 
composed  of  a  sufficient  number  of  ships  of  war,  appropri 
ated  to  the  service  assigned  to  them;  of  a  judicial  power, 
which  should  judge  all  crimes  relating  to  the  trade,  according 
to  a  legislation  established  upon  the  subject,  by  the  common 
wisdom;  of  a  supreme  council,  in  which  would  reside  the  au 
thority  of  the  institution, — which  would  regulate  the  operation? 
of  the  maritime  force — would  revise  the  sentences  of  the  tri 
bunals — would  put  them  in  execution — would  inspect  all  tin 
details,  and  would  render  an  account  of  its  administration  to 
the  future  European  conferences.  The  right  of  visit  and  de 
tention  would  be  granted  to  this  institution,  as  the  means  of 
fulfilling  its  end;  and  perhaps  no  maritime  nation  would 
refuse  to  submit  its  flag  to  this  police,  exercised  in  a  limited 
and  clearly  defined  manner,  and  by  a  power  too  feeble  to 
allow  of  vexations;  too  disinterested  on  all  maritime  and 
commercial  questions,  and,  above  all,  too  widely  combined 
in  its  elements,  not  to  observe  a  severe,  but  impartial  jus'tict 
towards  all." 

Neither  the  French  plan  of  surveillance,  nor  the  Amphyc- 
tionic  Institution  of  his  Imperial  Majesty,  suited  the  views  oi 
Lord  Castlereagh,  who  could  not  be  persuaded  of  the  practi 
cability  of  either.  His  lordship  finally  proposed  to  qualify 
the  d(  sired  right  of  search,  by  limiting  its  duration  to  a  certain 
number  of  years;  and  by  this  and  other  modifications,  "  he  flat 
ters  himself,"  says  the  thirteenth  Report  of  the  African  Institu 
tion,  "  that  he  has  made  a  considerable  impression  in  remov 
ing  the  strong  repugnance  which  was  at  first  felt  to  the  mea 
sure."  But  the  directors  themselves  do  not  appear  to  be  so 
sanguine,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  following  passage  of  thr 
Report:  "  Thus  ended  the  conferences,  and  proceedings  at 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  respecting  the  more  effectual  abolition  of  the 
African  slave  trade,  and  thus  have  the  directors  been  disap 
pointed  in  the  hopes  which  they  had  entertained,  of  seeing  thr 


SLAVE  TRADE.  379 

noble  principles,  announced  to  the  world  by  the  congress  at  SECT. IX. 
Vienna,  carried  into  complete  effect,  by  the  sovereigns  and  v-x~v^»w> 
plenipotentiaries  assembled   in  the  course  of  the  last  autumn. 
Whether  such  another  opportunity  of  bringing  those  principles 
into  action,  may  ever  again  occur,  cannot  be  foreseen;  but  the 
directors  must  be  allowed  to  express  their  unfeigned  regret, 
that  so  very  favourable  a  combination  of  circumstances  has 
led  to  such  unimportant  results," 

The  plan  of  England  to  obtain  from  the  congress  a  sen 
tence  of  piracy  upon  the  slave  trade,  appeared  to  the  sove-i 
reigns  rather  wanting  in  courtesy  towards  their  royal  brother 
of  the  Brasils,  while  he  persisted  in  authorizing  his  subjects 
to  prosecute  it  indefinitely  as  to  number.  It  was  evident, 
said  the  emperor  of  Russia,  that  the  general  promulgation 
of  such  a  law  could  not  take  place,  until  Portugal  had 
totally  renounced  the  trade.  At  the  same  time,  the  con 
gress  might  not  have  been  able  to  discern  the  consistency, 
of  proclaiming  that  a  capital  crime  in  the  subjects  of  one 
nation,  which  those  of  another  might  do  with  impunity, 
under  the  sanction  of  recent  treaties.  It  was  certainly  an 
awkward  duty  for  an  English  ministry,  to  solicit  the  denun 
ciation  of  piracy  against  the  slave  trade,  which  the  English 
nation  had,  for  two  centuries,  struggled  to  monopolize.  The 
reflection  upon  all  the  generations  of  that  whole  tract  of  time, 
was  rather  too  strong,  in  the  use  of  such  language  as  this — 
"  Slave-trading  always  involves  man-stealing  and  murder. 
Even  on  the  passage  its  murders  are  numerous,"*  &c.  The 
Lord  Chancellor  Eldon  could  not  have  thought  so,  when,  op 
posing  the  British  abolition  in  1807,  "he  entered  into  a 
review*  of  the  measures  adopted  by  England,  respecting 
the  trade,  which,  he  contended,  had  been  sanctioned  by  Par 
liaments  in  which  sat  the  wisest  lawyers,  the  most  learned 
divines,  and  the  most  excellent  statesmen."!  Nor  could 
Lord  Hawkesbury,  when  he  moved  that  the  words  "  in 
consistent  with  the  principles  of  justice  and  humanity," 
should  be  struck  out  of  the  preamble  of  the  British  abo 
lition  bill.J  Nor  could  Lord  Sidmouth,  when  he  said, 
"  to  the  measure  itself  he  had  no  objection,  if  it  could  be 
accomplished  without  detriment  to  the  West  India  islands :"§ 
Nor  the  Earl  of  Westmoreland,  in  declaring  that  "  though 
he  should  see  the  presbyterian  and  the  prelate,  the  metho- 
dist  and  field  preacher,  the  jacobin  and  murderer,  unite  in 

*  The  Memorial,    f  Hansard's  Debates,  vol.  viii.     }  Ibid.    §Ibid, 


389  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.   favour  of  the  measure  of  abolition,  he  would  raise  his  voict 

^*^^s  against  it  in  Parliament."* 

Throughout-  the  conferences  and  negotiations  above  men 
tioned,  we  find  the  continental  powers  betraying  a  rooted 
distrust  of  the  motives  of  the  British  government.  The 
vehemence  of  its  execrations  upon  the  trade;  the  intensity  of 
its  present  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  Africa,  contributed  to  excite 
suspicion,  when  compared  with  the  language  I  have  just 
cited,  and  with  the  toleration  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese 
traffic  before  the  peace; — with  the  treaty  of  1814,  by  which 
England,  having  secured  for  herself,  in  the  general  distribution 
of  spoil,  some  favourite  objects  of  interest,  delivered  over  to  the 
miseries  now  so  pathetically  described,  whole  provinces  which 
she  boasted  of  having  entirely  relieved — with  the  free  export 
of  tire-arms  and  ammunition  from  the  British  ports  to  the 
coast  of  Africa;  and  with  the  existence  of  slavery  in  its 
worst  form,  in  all  the  British  settlements,  including  those  of 
Asia  Minor  and  the  East  Indies.  It  was  remarked  that,  as 
soon  as  it  was  seen  in  England,  in  1806,  that  her  trade 
would  be  abolished,  Parliament  petitioned  the  king  to  nego 
tiate  with  foreign  powers  for  the  abolition  of  theirs;  but  that 
nothing  was  vigorously  attempted  in  this  way, — all  had  been 
languor  and  connivance, — until  the  conclusion  of  peace,  when 
the  restitution  took  place,  of  considerable  colonies,  which, 
being  stocked  regularly  and  cheaply  with  slaves,  while  those 
retained  by  England  received  only  a  precarious  and  dear  sup 
ply,  might  speedily  outgrow  the  latter,  and  supplant  them  in 
the  markets  of  the  world;  and  when  on  other  grounds  avowed 
and  pressed  in  Parliament,  the  commercial  interests  of  Eng 
land  evidently  required,  if  not  universal  abolition,  at  least  the 
restriction  to  the  south  of  the  equator. 

France  knew  that  it  was  with  British  capital  and  shipping 
that  her  merchants  had  embarked  in  the  trade,  immediately 
after  the  peace;  Spain  and  Portugal,  that  the  greater  part  of 
the  trade  carried  on  under  their  flags  was  on  British  ac 
count;  and  they  were  somewhat  incredulous,  when  they 
were  told  of  the  British  negotiators  being  u  the  organs  of 
a  people  unanimous  in  its  condemnation;  apprized  of  all 
it?  horrors;  impressed  with  all  its  guilt;  foremost  in  re 
moving  its  pollution  from  themselves,  and  waiting  with  con 
fident,  but  impatient  hope,  the  glad  tidings  of  its  universal 
abolition."  None  of  the  powers  had  ever  found  those  organs 
disposed  to  make  a  sacrifice  for  this  object,  beyond  an  island, 

*  Ibid. 


SLAVE  TRADE, 


381 


a  subsidy,  or  a  largess;  which  might  be  considered  as  offered  SECT.  ix. 
with  a  view  to  ample  compensation  in  lucre;  for  Mr.  Wilber-  v-^v^-/ 
force  was  implicitly  to  be  believed,  when  he  said,  in  the- 
House  of  Commons,  in  addition  to  what  I  have  already  quoted 
from  him  of  a  like  tenor,  that,  "  in  a  commercial  point  of 
view,  it  was  of  incalculable  advantage  to  have  the  supply  of 
that  large  tract  of  country,  from  the  Senegal  down  to  the 
Niger,  an  extent  of  more  than  7500  miles,  with  the  necessa 
ries  and  gratifications  which  British  manufactures  and  com 
merce  afford."*  Parliament  still  contained  several  of  the 
hitherto  inflexible  anti-abolitionists,  who  had  harangued  with 
out  end  to  prove  the  justice  and  humanity  of  the  trade  at 
large;  its  very  unanimity,  therefore,  where  that  of  foreign 
powers  was  concerned,  had  the  effect  of  lessening  confidence 
abroad.  Such  a  phenomenon  as  the  union  of  General  Gas- 
coyne  with  Mr.  Wilberforce,  of  Lord  Westmoreland  wiih 
Lord  Grenville,  in  proclaiming  the  unequalled  guilt  and  in 
famy  of  the  slave  traffic,  could  be  viewed  by  the  Talleyrands 
and  the  Nesselrodes  only  as  indicating  a  universal  sense,  of 
the  great  importance  of  the  end  in  view,  to  the  commercial 
ascendancy  of  Great  Britain. 

It  is  easily  seen,  from  the  strain  of  the  diplomatic  notes  ad 
dressed  to  Lord  Castlereagh  at  Aix  la-Chapelle,  that  the  con 
gress  had  a  common  jealousy  of  the  designs  of  England  upon 
the  African  coast,  and  acted  in  concert  in  disappointing  the 
hopes,  and  alarming  the  policy,  of  her  plenipotentiary.  To 
maintain  a  fleet  upon  that  coast  would  obviously  be  in  the 
power  of  none  but  England,  so  that  the  idea  of  reciprocity  in 
the  right  of  search  was  illusive;  and  it  was  not  contrary  to 
the  entire  analogy  of  British  maritime  administration,  to  sup 
pose,  that,  in  this  case,  it  might  be  perverted  to  the  ends  of 
rapacity,  oppression,  or  monopoly. 

The  invidiousness  of  the  proceedings  of  the  English  states 
men,  and  the  incredulity  which  they  have  rendered  inveterate 
in  the  foreign  cabinets,  as  to  their  professions,  in  this  matter 
of  the  slave  trade,  make  it  doubtful  whether  the  cause  of  real, 
universal  abolition  has  not  suffered  by  the  intervention  of 
England.  Had  the  appeal  to  the  justice,  humanity,  magnani 
mity,  and  true  interests  of  France,  Spain,  or  Portugal,  come 
from  a  quarter  where  no  selfish  or  hostile  views  could  be  sus 
pected  to  lurk;  had  it  been  urged  with  steady  effort,  with 
the  directness  of  conscious  benevolence,  and  with  only  a  part 
of  that  eloquence  and  sagacity  which  Great  Britain  has  dis- 

*  February  11,  1818. 


KEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.  played  in  the  argument,  it  might,  in  the  end,  have  effectually 
v^*^'^**'  reclaimed  those  powers,  or  have  raised  against  them  such  a 
combination  of  influence  as  would  have  led  to  the  same  happ/ 
result.  But,  in  dealing  with  Great  Britain,  the  calculation 
with  them  has  been,  how  to  avoid  a  suspected  snare;  to  coun 
teract  an  insidious  rival  policy;  to  preserve  the  interests  which 
they  ostensibly  sacrificed  in  compliance  with  the  particular 
necessities  of  their  situation  Hence  a  more  eager  and  obsti 
nate  purpose  of  rilling  their  colonies  with  negroes  in  every 
practicable  mode;  a  greater  callousness  to  the  shame  and 
criminality  of  the  traffic — hence  on  the  part  of  other  powers, 
giving  the  same  construction  to  the  instances  of  England, 
little  disposition  to  adopt  any  system  that  should  cut  off  the  r 
supplies,  or  second  her  aims.  Hence,  too,  the  unmeaning  er- 
gagements  about  abolition  after  a  certain  period  of  enjoyment, 
which  only  serve  to  stimulate  the  exertions  of  the  slave  trade-, 
and  aggravate  the  immediate  desolation  of  Africa;  "the  vows 
of  future  amendment  coupled  with  present  perseverance  in 
guilt;"  sacrifices  promised  to  be  made,  with  a  determination 
to  prove  faithless;  solemn  assurances  of  future  rectitude,  fc-r 
whose  accomplishment  we  are  to  wait  until  commercial  jea 
lousy  shall  cease,  avarice  be  satiated,  or  the  sword  drawn  to 
enforce  performance. 

More  of  cant,  hypocrisy,  and  inconsistency,  has  never  dis 
graced  any  occasion,  than  this  of  the  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade.  While  it  is  admitted  universally,  and  solemnly  pro 
claimed  by  the  potentates,  to  be  the  opprobrium  of  Christen 
dom,  and  the  bane  of  Africa;  "  repugnant  to  the  principles  of 
humanity  and  essential  morality,"*  they  enter  into  compacts 
among  themselves  for  guaranteeing  to  one  or  the  other,  the 
unmolested  prosecution  of  it,  during  such  a  term  as  the  con 
venience  of  the  party  may  require;  and  in  no  case  is  there  an 
intention  of  observing  the  limitation  prescribed.  France  de 
mands,  to  use  the  language  of  Lord  Grenville,  five  years  of 
injustice  and  rapine,  of  murder  and  violence,  laying  waste  a 
whole  quarter  of  the  globe,  that  she  may  recruit  her  colonial 
vigour,  and  particularly  that  she  may  have  the  facility  of  re- 
peopling  St.  Domingo  with  slaves,  in  case  of  the  reduction  of 
that  island;  England,  the  tutelary  genius  of  Africa,  specially 
ratifies  this  demand:  Portugal  and  Spain  must  have  eight 
years  of  the  same  horrible  career,  and  will  not  agree  to  desist 
even  then,  unless  their  commercial  relations  with  England 

*  See  the  Declaration  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  8th  Feb.  1815. 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


383 


shall  undergo  a  particular  change:  they  acknowledge  the  SEC1MX. 
teeming  wickedness  of  the  traffic;  but,  unluckily,  they  have  ^^~v^' 
the  prosperity  of  their  dominions  to  promote:  England  dis 
claims  all  idea  of  giving  the  law  on  the  subject,  or  pushing- 
matters  to  an  extremity:*  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia,  cau- 
not  undertake  to  coerce  any  power,  either  as  to  time  or  space; 
and  decide  that  each  is  to  be  left  to  consult  "  the  prejudices, 
habits,  and  interests  of  its  subjects,  and  the  circumstances  of 
its  situation:"  All  pledge  themselves,  in  the  last  place,  to  make 
every  possible  effort  to  accelerate  the  triumph  of  the  magnifi 
cent  cause  of  universal  abolition! 

The  only  governments,  in  fact,  which  have  acted  sincerely 
and  independently,  in  relation  to  it,  are  those  of  Denmark  and 
the  United  States.  I  am  free  to  confess  that  no  small  share 
of  the  illicit  trade  has  been  carried  on  by  Americans,  or  by 
persons  assuming  the  character;  and  that  no  inconsiderable 
number  of  negroes  has  been  clandestinely  imported  into  the 
most  southern  parts  of  our  territory.  Perhaps  the  Federal 
Government  has  not  exerted  all  the  vigilance  in  repressing 
these  abuses,  which  their  enormity  required;  but  the  heartiest 
detestation  of  them  is  common  to  it  and  to  the  majority  of  the 
nation.  The  least  participation  in  the  slave  traffic  is  certainly 
a  deep  stain,  and  a  heinous  guilt.  The  violence  which  this 
traffic  does,  in  its  very  conception,  to  the  rights  and  obliga 
tions  of  human  nature;  its  effect  in  brutalizing  those  who 
pursue  it;  the  flagitious  and  ferocious  practices  with  which  it 
is  attended;  the  ineffable,  accumulated  woes  which  it  inflicts 
upon  its  defenceless  victims;  the  immeasurable  evils  of  every 
kind  with  which  it  overspreads  the  continent  of  Africa,  and 
threatens  that  of  America — conspire  to  invest  it  with  a  charac 
ter  of  greater  deformity,  scandal,  depravity,  and  pernicious- 
ness,  than  belongs  to  any  other  general  crime  of  the  civilized 
world.  I  have  been  the  more  liberal  of  details  concerning 
the  horrors  of  the  British  trade,  in  order  to  attract  a  more 
earnest  attention  to  our  own  late  offences  of  the  sort,  about 
which  we  have  been  too  supine;  and  against  which  the  voice 
of  every  good  citizen  and  moral  man,  as  well  as  the  voice  and 
the  arm  of  the  government,  should  be  perpetually  raised. 

17.  Widely  different,  under  the  circumstances  in  which  we 
find  ourselves,  is  the  case  of  retaining  the  wretched  race  of 
Africa  in  bondage.  The  most  zealous  of  the  English  philan- 

*  See  the  Protocol  of  the  third  conference  at  Vienna,  Feb.  4th, 
1815. 


384  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  i.  thropists  have  not  carried  their  aims  so  far,  with  respect  lo 
'^*^^~>  West  India  slavery,  as  its  immediate  or  speedy  abolition.  I 
have  quoted,  in  my  seventh  section,  the  protest  entered  l>y 
the  Edinburgh  Review,  against  the  imputation  of  such  a  de 
sign,  either  to  the  Reviewers  or  any  of  the  adversaries  of  the 
slave  trade.  That  journal  has  returned  several  times  to  (he 
topic;  in  the  eighth  number,  for  instance,  in  the  following  lan 
guage: — "  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  premise,  that  the  advo 
cates  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  most  cordially  repro 
bate  all  idea  of  emancipating  the  slaves  that  are  already  in 
our  plantations.  Such  a  scheme  indeed  is  sufficiently  answered  by 
the  story  of  the  galley  slaves  in  Don  Quixotte,  and  we  are 
persuaded,  never  had  any  place  in  the  minds  of  those  eit- 
lighiened  and  judicious  persons,  who  have  contended  in  this 
cause." 

So  late  as  1817,  Lord  Holland,  one  of  the  most  devoted 
among  the  associates  of  Mr.  Wilberforce,  moved,  in  tl  e 
House  of  Peers,  a  petition  to  the  Prince  Regent,  prayirg 
that  the  idea  of  emancipating  the  West  India  slaves  might  1.  e 
disowned  by  royal  proclamation  throughout  the  islands; 
which  was  done  accordingly.  Their  unfitness  for  freedom, 
no  less  than  the  danger  to  the  white  inhabitants,  has  been  al 
leged  as  the  motive  for  discarding  all  projects  implying  their 
liberation.  This  has  always  been  treated  in  England  as  a 
question  of  practicability,  not  of  strict  justice.  To  give  a 
specimen  of  the  mode  of  reasoning  on  the  subject,  I  will  ex 
tract  a  passage  from  a  speech  of  Mr.  W.  Grant  in  the  House 
of  Commons. 

u  Mr.  W.  Grant  said,  he  had  ever  conceived  that  the  end 
of  legislation  was  to  do  good,  and  to  consider  justice  in  our 
means  of  doing  it.  Now,  there  were  some  occasions  on 
which  it  was  impossible  to  do  so;  and  there  the  greatest  good 
must  be  the  object  even  in  violation  of  strict  justice.  He 
would  illustrate  his  meaning  by  an  instance.  Let  them  sup 
pose  a  case  of  emnncipation.  Wherever  slavery  existed, 
there  necessarily  existed  oppression,  and  the  continuance  of 
slavery  was  consequently  a  continuance  of  oppression.  If  he 
had  professed  to  do  justice,  and  a  slave  were  to  ask  him,  how 
could  he  account  for  the  use  he  had  in  view  in  making  him  a 
slave;  if  he  meant  to  do  justice,  he  should  not  continue  him  a 
slave?  he  should  answer,  that  his  means  were  circumscribed, 
and  'hat  it  was  true  philanthropy  to  effect  the  greatest  good, 
which  the  nature  of  the  case  would  admit.  If  he  forbore  to 
do  nn  act,  abstractly  an  act  of  humanity,  but  which  would 
produce  a  different  consequence,  he  surely  acted  rightly; 


SLAVE  TRADE.  385 

were  he  to  act  otherwise,  he  should  not  satisfy  his  con-  SECT.  IX. 
science,  because  he  should  not  diminish  the  misery  he  wish-  v-^v-^- 
ed  to  relieve." 

Expediency  is  thus  justified,  and  allowed  on  all  hands  to 
prevail,  touching  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the  West  Indies. 
That  the  British  government  possesses  the  pmcer  to  suppress 
it,  no  one  ventures  to  deny.  The  Edinburgh  Review  has 
scouted  the  supposition  of  armed  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 
islands,  to  any  exertion  of  the  supreme  authority  of  the 
mother  country.  u  If,"  says  the  50th  number,  "  a  threat  of 
following  the  example  of  America,  that  is,  of  rebelling,  be 
held  out,  then  the  answer  is,  that  what  was  boldness  in  the 
one  case,  would  be  impudence  in  the  other,  and  England 
must  be  reduced  very  low,  indeed,  before  she  can  feel  greatly 
alarmed  at  this  threat  from  a  Caribbee  island."  She  is, 
therefore,  responsible  for  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the  West 
Indies,  as  much  as  if  it-existed  within  her  own  bosom,  and  we 
might  retort  upon  her  the  phrase  of  the  Edinburgh  Review 
directed  against  us, — u  That  slavery  should  exist  among  men 
who  know  the  value  of  liberty,  and  profess  to  understand  its 
principles,  is  the  consummation  of  wickedness ." 

Were  the  question  of  the  abolition  of  West  India  slavery  to 
be  treated  as  one  of  strict  justice,  England  could  have  no 
escape  from  its  fullest  pressure.  The  circumstance  of  her 
having  created  and  fostered  the  slavery  itself;  of  her  having 
been  chiefly  instrumental  in  making  it  the  fate  of  so  many 
millions  of  the  race  of  its  victims  there,  would  give  every 
possible  degree  offeree  and  solemnity  to  the  abstract  obliga"- 
tion  in  the  case.  While,  therefore,  slavery  continues  to  ex 
ist  undisturbed  in  the  West  Indies,  the  Briton  who  approves 
of  the  policy  of  maintaining  it,  cannot  deny  to  the  United 
States,  the  benefit  of  the  plea  of  expediency  in  regard  to  the 
emancipation  of  their  blacks.  To  avert  a  personal  danger 
from  her  planters,  and  to  maintain  her  lucrative  connexion 
with  the  islands,  England  abstains  from  "  tearing  off  the 
manacles," — the  most  galling  that  ever  were  imposed — from 
nearly  a  million  of  that  race;  she  even  abstains,  upon  consi 
derations  of  possible  disadvantage,  as  the  postponement  of  the 
Registry  Bill  shows,  from  measures  adapted  merely  to  the 
amelioration  of  their  condition. 

I  have,  I  think,  proved  in  the  first  pages  of  this  sec 
tion,  that  but  a  slight  degree  of  blame  attaches  to  the  co 
lonists,  respecting  the  existence  of  slavery  in  this  country; 
and  that  their  descendants  were  in  no  measure  culpable,  as 
far  down  as  the  declaration  of  our  independence.  They 

VOL.  I.—  3  C 


386 


NKGRO  SLAVERY  AND 


PART  I.  were  no  more  so,  than  they  would  have  been,  for  an  heredi- 
**^~*~>*s  tary  gout  or  leprosy,  ascribable  in  its  origin  to  the  vices  oi 
the  parent  state,  and  which  the  authors  of  it  should  have  stu 
diously  prevented  them  from  curing.  The  continuation  of 
the  system  of  slavery  among  us,  during  the  Revolution,  was  as 
much  a  matter  of  necessity,  as  it  ever  had  been  before.  It 
was  not  the  time  for  the  southern  states,  to  make  the  experi 
ment  of  a  fundamental  alteration  in  the  whole  economy  of 
their  existence,  when  they  were  contending  with  a  ruthless 
foe  who  sought  to  array  the  whole  body  of  negroes  against  the 
whites,  and  who  would  have  availed  himself  of  the  greater 
freedom  of  action  which  emancipation  must  have  afforded  thr 
latter,  to  accomplish  his  diabolical  purpose. 

But  the  northern  and  middle  states,  more  auspiciously  cir 
cumstanced,  began  the  work  of  extirpating  the  evil  from  their 
own  bosom,  even  before  the  termination  of  the  revolutionary 
struggle.  In  1780,  Pennsylvania  decreed  a  gradual  aboli 
tion;  in  the  same  year  an  immediate  one  was  virtually  effect 
ed  in  Massachusetts;  the  example  of  Pennsylvania  was  fol 
lowed  throughout  New  England  at  the  distance  of  a  few 
years;  all  that  portion  of  the  Union,  north  of  the  state  of  De 
laware,  has  since  pursued  the  same  course. 

It  was  more  than  a  practical  moralist  could  expect  or  ex 
act,  that  the  southern  states,  retaining  sovereign  governments 
of  their  own,  should  trust  the  federal  councils  with  the 
determination  of  such  a  question,  as  the  emancipation  of 
their  slaves,  on  which  their  highest  interests  of  property  and 
safely  were  immediately  dependent.  No  power  to  decide  for 
them  on  this  question  could  be  communicated,  according  to 
the  drift  and  nature  of  our  union,  either  to  the  Revolutionary 
Confederation,  or  to  the  actual  government.  The  power  of 
legislating  in  all  respects  for  the  territory  belonging  to  the 
United  States,  accrued  necessarily,  however,  to  both;  and  it 
was  exercised  in  relation  to  slavery,  by  the  first,  in  a  manner 
to  evince  the  rectitude  of  the  general  spirit  on  the  subject,  ren 
dered  impotent  in  the  south  by  the  strongest  of  impulses,  if  not 
the  first  of  duties — self-preservation.  The  ordinance  enacted 
by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  in  1787,  for  the  go 
vernment  of  the  territory  north  west  of  the  river  Ohio,  con 
tains  the  following  article — a  There  shall  be  neither  slavery 
nor  involuntary  servitude  in  the  said  territory,  otherwise  than 
in  punishment  of  crimes  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been 
duly  convicted."  This  vast  region  was  thus  scrupulously 
preserved  from  the  evil;  and  the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois  formed  out  of  it,  make  an  integral  part  of  that  consi- 


SLAVE  TRADE,  381 

derable   and  most  prosperous  division  of  our  empire,  into  SECT.  IX. 
which,  happily,  an  Englishman  may  emigrate  without  "  ex-  *~*~^*+s 
posing  his  own  character  or  the  character  of  his  children  to 
the  demoralizing  effect  of  commanding  slaves." 

18.  The  question  of  the  existence  of  slavery  is  not,  as  I  have 
intimated, — could  not  be, — put  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
present  government  of  the  United  States.  The  condition  of 
things  assuring,  for  a  long  time,  to  the  part  of  the  country  ex 
empt  or  soon  to  be  exempt  from  the  evil,  a  numerical  majo 
rity  in  the  federal  legislature,  this  domestic  interest  of  the 
southern  members  of  the  Union,  vital  and  pre-eminently  de 
licate  in  its  nature,  would  have  been  placed  at  the  mercy  of 
men  incapable,  like  the  Edinburgh  Reviewers,  of  understand 
ing  it  thoroughly;  liable  to  an  undue  bias  resulting  from  the 
action  of  good  principles;  and  who,  whatever  their  general 
spirit  of  forbearance,  considerateness  of  character,  and  warmth 
of  political  friendship,  might,  from  ignorance  and  prejudice 
combined,  through  a  mistaken  patriotism  and  philanthropy, 
or  in  obedience  to  a  sentimental  clamor  of  their  constituents, 
seconded  by  a  generous  zeal  in  their  own  breasts,  hastily  take 
a  step  which  would  sooner  or  later  involve  both  master  and 
slave,  in  the  south,  in  one  common  ruin. 

As  regards,  then,  the  existence  of  slavery  within  the  limits 
of  the  Union,  the  federal  government  has  no  responsibility 
such  as  that  of  the  British  parliament,  in  its  omnipotence, 
with  respect  to  the  whole  internal  economy  of  the  British  pos 
sessions.  The  eleven  of  these  American  states,  in  which 
slavery  is  now  abolished,  are  not  implicated  in  the  demerits 
of  the  question.  To  break  loose  from  the  confederation,  and 
thus  to  risk  their  own  political  independence,  because  the 
other  members  do  not  perform  that  which  is  impracticable; 
because  these  happen,  without  their  own  fault,  to  be  afflicted 
with  the  curse  of  negro  slavery;  or  to  attempt  to  enforce  by 
arms,  an  abolition;  is  what  no  sane  person  will  consider  as 
incumbent  upon  them,  and  what  would  hardly  be  advised  by 
England,  who  neither  coerces  nor  discards  the  West  Indies; 
and  who  would  not  "  give  the  law"  to  Spain,  Portugal,  or 
France,  with  respect  to  the  slave  trade — infinitely  the  more 
detestable  crime  and  destructive  evil — when  those  powers 
were  at  her  beck. 

The  eastern  and  middle  states  have  not  been  backward  in 
discharging  any  duty  in  the  way  of  exhortation  and  aid,  which 
their  political  and  Qther  ties  with  the  slave-holding  countries 
might  seem  to  create.  Their  doctrine  as  to  human  rights  is  ae 


388  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  i.  broad,  as  sincerely  adopted,  and  as  loudly  proclaimed,  as  thai 
**^~^~**s  of  England;  abolition  societies  abound  in  them,  who  do  not 
yield  in  point  of  zeal  to  the  African  Institution,  and  have  no 
compromise  to  make  with  any  government.*  The  citizens  of 
those  states,  in  emigrating  to  the  west,  as  they  do  constantly  in 
great  numbers,  manifest  the  soundness  of  their  feelings  and 
principles  on  this  subject,  by  settling  in  preference,  in  the 
parts  from  which  negro  slavery  is  excluded.  Hence  the  asto 
nishing  growth  of  the  states  of  Ohio  and  Indiana,  the  first  of 
which  has  outstripped,  in  advances  of  every  kind,  whatever 
the  world  had  seen  in  the  spontaneous  formation  of  commu 
nities. 

But,  those  members  of  the  Union,  of  which  I  am  now 
speaking,  while  they  have  inculcated  without  reserve,  in  tht 
national  councils,  every  truth,  either  abstract  or  practical,  ap 
pertaining  to  the  question  of  our  negro  slavery,  have  not  been 
blind  to  the  just  sentiments  of  their  southern  associates,  who 
alone  are  accountable;  nor  have  they  overlooked,  though  they 
may  not  have  always  fully  measured,  the  difficulties  inherent  in 
the  situation  of  the  latter.  They,  who  have  better  opportunities 
of  understanding  it  than  the  British  reviewers,  are  far  from 
thinking  that  it  "  affords  no  apology  for  the  existence  of  sla 
very."  They  see  it  in  the  same  light,  in  this  respect,  as  they 
see  that  of  the  West  Indies,  which  the  Reviewers  have  declar 
ed  a  complete  justification:  for,  though  the  negroes  in  our 
slave-holding  states  are  not  near  so  numerous  in  the  propor 
tion  to  the  whites,  as  in  the  West  Indies;  and  though,  from 
the  superiority  of  their  condition,  they  are  better  prepared  for 
freedom,  yet  they  are  in  sufficient  number  to  assure,  in  the 
event  of  insurrection,  the  most  horrible  disasters,  before  they 
could  be  subdued,  with  the  earliest  possible  aid  from  the  other 
states;  and,  they  are  still,  from  inevitable  causes,  far  from 
the  point  of  being  prepared  to  exist  here,  out  of  the  bonds  of 
slavery,  with  advantage  to  themselves,  or  safety  to  the  whites. 

19.  Before  the  American  revolution,  the  British  policy  of 
multiplying  their  numbers  by  importations  from  Africa,  closed 
the  door  against  an  attempt  to  qualify  them,  by  moral  and  po 
litical  instruction,  for  that  state.  Such  an  attempt  would  ap 
pear  to  have  been  equally  impracticable,  in  the  course  of  the 
revolutionary  war,  if  we  look  only  to  the  engrossing  avoca- 

*  See  the  writing's  of  Dr.  Thorpe  for  an  explanation  of  thisinuendo. 
He  roundly  charges  Mr.  Wilberforce  and  the  Institution,  with  playinp 
into  the  hands  of  the  ministry. 


SLAVE  TRADE. 

tionsof  the  struggle,  and  to  the  belligerent  system  of  the  mo-  SECT.JX. 
ther  country.     But  it  was  so  then,  and  has  been  ever  since,  v«*^v^^/ 
from  other  causes;  more  obviously,  as  the  numbers  of  the- 
blacks  increased.    An  effectual  training  of  the  kind  is  incom 
patible  writh  their  very  being  as  slaves,  and  with  the  nature  of 
the  toil  incident  to  their  situation.  It  presupposes  their  eman 
cipation,  or  such  a  modification  of  their  existence  as  would 
be  equivalent,  in  reference  to  their  value  as  property,  or  to 
the  danger  threatened  by  their  exemption  from  restraint.  The 
doctrine  so  long  popular  and  pursued  in  England,  and  main 
tained  openly  by  some  of  her  most  distinguished  statesmen,* 
that  the  labouring  classes  should  not  be  enlightened,  lest  they 
might  become  unwilling  to  perform  the  necessary  drudgery  of 
their  station  in  life,  and  prone  to  rise  against  the  monarchical 
scheme  of  social  order,  was  not,  perhaps,  in  her  case,  altoge 
ther  without  foundation  as  to  the  latter  topic  of  apprehension. 
Now,  though  the  very  reverse  is  the  soundest  policy  for  us, 
with  our  institutions,  as  respects  the  whites,  that  doctrine,  if 
the  right  of  the  southern  American  to  consult  his  own  safety 
and  the  ultimate  happiness  of  his  slaves,  be  admitted,  is  un 
questionably  just  in  relation  to  the  body  of  the  southern  ne 
groes.     You  could  not  attempt  to  improve  and  fashion  their 
minds  upon  a  general  system,  so  far  as  to  make  them  capable 
of  freedom  in  the  mass  and  apart,  without  exposing  yourself, 
even  in  the  process,  or  in  proportion  as  they  began  to  under 
stand  and  value  their  rights,  to  feel  the  abjection  of  their 
position  and  employment,  calculate  their  strength,  and  be  fit 
for  intelligent  concert — to  formidable  combinations  among 
them,  for  extricating  themselves  from  their  grovelling  and  se 
vere  labours  at  once,  and  for  gaining,  not  merely  an  equality 
in  the  state,  but  an  ascendancy  in  all  respects.  The  difference 
of  race  and  colour  would  render  such  aspirations  in  them, 
much  more  certain,  prompt,  and  active,  than  in  the  case  of  a 
body  of  villeins  of  the  same  colour  and  blood  with  yourselves, 
whom  you  might  undertake  to  prepare  for  self-government. 
The  Duke  of  Wellington,  in  the  late  debate  on   Catholic 
emancipation  in  the  British  House  of  Peers,  expressed  his 
belief  that  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  if  relieved  from  their 
disabilities,  would  endeavour  to  put  down  the  reformed  reli 
gion,  and  this  because  of  the  feelings  which  must  accompany 
the  recollection,  that  that  religion  had  been  established  in  their 
country  by  the  sword.     What  consequences,  then,  might  we 
not  expect  in  the  case  of  our  slaves,  from  the  sense  of  recent 

*  See  page  69,  Sect,  ii. 


390  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.  suffering  and  degradation,  and  from  the  feelings  incident  10 
<^~^**~'  the  estrangement  and  insulation  growing  out  of  the  indelible 
distinctions  of  nature? 

I  know  of  but  one  mode  of  correcting  those  feelings  at  d 
preventing  alienation,  hostility,  and  civil  war;  of  making  the 
experiment  of  general  instruction  and  emancipation  with  ar  y 
degree  of  safety.  We  must  assure  the  blacks  of  a  perfect 
equality  in  all  points  with  ourselves;  we  must  labour  to  in 
corporate  them  with  us,  so  that  we  shall  become  of  one  flesh 
and  blood,  and  of  one  political  family!  It  is  doubtful  even 
whether  we  could  succeed  in  this  point,  so  gregarious  are  (hey 
in  their  habits,  and  so  strong  in  their  national  sympathy.  Mo 
sublime  philanthropist  of  Europe  has,  however,  as  yet,  in  I  is 
reveries  of  the  impiety  of  political 'distinctions  founded  upon 
the  colour  of  the  body,  or  in  his  lamentations  over  our  injustice 
to  the  blacks,  exacted  from  us  openly  this  hopeful  amalgam  i- 
tion.  It  would,  no  doubt,  suit  admirably  the  views  of  o  ir 
friends  in  England,  who  would  then  have  full  scope  for  plei- 
sant  comparisons  between  the  American  and  English  intellect, 
and  the  American  and  English  complexion.* 

I  could  suggest  another  consideration,  alone  sufficient  io 
have  deterred  our  southern  states  from  hazarding,  since  our 
revolution,  the  measure  of  a  general  abolition  of  negro  slavery, 
accompanied  with  the  continuance  of  the  negroes  within  their 
limits.  It  would  have  put  those  states  especially,  and  this 
federal  union,  at  the  mercy  of  Great  Britain.  The  facility 
of  tampering  with  the  blacks,  and  of  exciting  them  to  insur 
rection,  would  have  been  increased  for  her,  incalculably,  in 
their  new  condition,  in  time  of  war.  Let  her  conduct  on  this 
head  during  the  revolutionary  struggle,  and  in  our  late  contest, 
in  relation  both  to  the  Indians  and  negroes,  determine  the 
point  whether  she  would  not  have  availed  herself  of  the  op 
portunity. 

On  the  subject  of  the  abolition  of  the  negro  slavery  of  the 
south,  Judge  Tucker,  whom  I  have  already  cited,  has  made 
some  remarks  which  cannot  fail  to  have  great  weight  with 
every  dispassionate  and  candid  mind. 

"'it  is  unjust,"  he  says,  "to  censure  the  present  generation 
for  the  existence  of  slavery  in  this  country,  for  I  think  it  un 
questionably  true,  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  our  fellcw- 
citizens  lament  that  as  a  misfortune,  which  is  imputed  to  them 

*  See  the  Quarterly  Review  of  May,  1819,  on  the  point  of  com 
plexion.  "The  white  men,  women,  and  children,  are  all  sallow  in 
America,"  &c. 


SLAVE  TRADE.  391 

as  a  reproach;  it  being  evident  that,  antecedent  to  the  revolution,  SECT.  IX. 
no  exertion  to  abolish,  or  even  to  check  the  progress  of  slavery,  v^-v-w 
could  have  received  the  smallest  countenance  from  the  crown, 
without  whose  assent  the  united  wishes  and  exertions  of  every 
individual  here,  would  have  been  wholly  fruitless  and  ineffec 
tual:  it  is,  perhaps,  also  demonstrable,  that  at  no  period  since 
the  revolution,  could  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  southern 
states  have  been  safely  undertaken,  until  the  foundations  of 
our  newly  established  governments  had  been  found  capable  of 
supporting  the  fabric  itself,  under  any  shock,  which  so  ardu 
ous  an  attempt  might  have  produced." 

"  The  acrimony  of  the  censures  cast  upon  us  must  abate, 
at  least  in  the  breasts  of  the  candid,  when  they  consider  the 
difficulties  attendant  on  any  plan  for  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
in  a  country  where  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  inhabitants 
are  slaves,  and  where  a  still  larger  proportion  of  the  cultiva 
tors  of  the  earth  are  of  that  description.  The  extirpation  of 
slavery  from  the  United  Slates  is  a  task  equally  momentous 
and  arduous.  Human  prudence  forbids  that  we  should  pre 
cipitately  engage  in  a  work  of  such  hazard  as  a  general  and 
simultaneous  emancipation.  The  mind  of  man  is  in  some 
measure  to  be  formed  for  his  future  condition.  The  early  im 
pressions  of  obedience  and  submission,  which  slaves  have  re 
ceived  among  us,  and  the  no  less  habitual  arrogance  and  as 
sumption  of  superiority  among  the  whites,  contribute  equally 
to  unfit  the  former  for  freedom,  and  the  latter  for  equality.  To 
expel  them  all  at  once  from  the  United  States  would,  in  fact, 
be  to  devote  them  only  to  a  lingering  death,  by  famine,  by 
disease,  and  other  accumulated  miseries.  To  retain  them 
among  us,  would  be  nothing  more  than  to  throw  so  many  of 
the  human  race  upon  the  earth,  without  the  means  of  subsist 
ence;  they  would  soon  become  idle,  profligate,  and  miserable. 
They  would  be  unfit  for  their  new  condition,  and  unwilling  to 
return  to  their  former  laborious  course." 

These  observations  were  published  in  1803;  but  they  art 
equally  applicable  to  the  succeeding  period.  Our  foreign  re 
lations  were  always  such  in  the  interval  between  the  com 
mencement  of  the  late  war  with  England  and  the  year  just 
mentioned,  as  to  give  an  aspect  of  extreme  danger  to  imme 
diate  abolition;  and  there  was  no  room  for  the  question  during 
the  continuance  of  the  war.  The  difficulties  of  the  case  in 
creased,  indeed,  with  the  great  increase  of  the  negroes,  in 
dependently  of  our  general  political  embarrassments,  both 
internal  and  external,  sufficient  to  absorb  our  care  and  fa 
culties. 


392  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  i.  It  was  by  gradual,  voluntary  enfranchisement,  not  by  legis- 
v-^-v~*w  lative  abolition,  that  an  end  was  put  to  the  villeinage  of  Eng 
land,  a  bondage  as  complete  and  degrading  as  that  of  our  ne 
groes,  and  which  lasted  until  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  But  the 
villein,  when  emancipated,  being  of  the  same  race,  colour,  anil 
general  character  with  the  master,  was  assimilated  and  con 
ciliated  at  once;  intermarriage  neither  debased  the  blood,  ncr 
destroyed  the  identity,  of  the  nation;  but  added  to  its  strengt  i 
and  security.  The  gradual  emancipation  of  the  negroes  of 
our  southern  states,  if  we  supposed  them  to  remain,  woulc, 
in  the  end,  produce  the  same  inadmissible  condition  of  things 
as  the  immediate, — a  two-fold,  or  a  motley  nation;  a  perpetuai, 
wasting  strife,  or  a  degeneracy  from  the  European  standard  of 
excellence,  both  as  to  body  and  mind.  As  far  as  it  has  bee  a 
tried,  it  has  inspired  no  confidence,  whether  as  regards  the 
happiness  of  the  blacks,  or  the  security  of  the  whites.  Vir 
ginia  took  advantage  of  her  independence  to  authorize  manu 
mission,  which  the  policy  of  the  mother  country  discounte 
nanced.  Judge  Tucker  calculates  that  upwards  often  thousan  i 
obtained  freedom  in  Virginia  in  this  way,  in  the  interval  be 
tween  1782,  when  she  passed  her  law,  and  the  year  1791. 
In  1810,  according  to  the  census,  the  number  of  her  free 
negroes  amounted  to  thirty  thousand  five  hundred  and  seventy. 
In  Maryland,  there  were  forty  thousand;  the  increase  having 
been  near  twenty-six  thousand  since  1790.  In  the  states  south 
of  Virginia,  this  class  was  not  so  numerous,  but  yet  not  incon 
siderable.  We  find,  by  Dr.  Seybert's  tables,  that  the  free 
negroes  and  mulattoes  increased  185.05  per  centum,  from 
1790  to  1800;  and  from  1790  to  1810,  313.45.  This  ex 
traordinary  increase  he  ascribes  to  emancipations  of  slaves  by 
their  masters.  Thus  the  experiment  has  been  ample;  and  now 
let  us  see  what  is  the  result  in  the  slave-holding  states.  It  is 
fully  given  in  the  following  representations  which  come  from 
the  pen  of  a  politician  well  known,  and  most  deservedly  and 
highly  respected,  in  Europe. 

"You  may  manumit  a  slave,  but  you  cannot  make  him  a 
white  man.  He  still  remains  a  negro  or  a  mulatto.  The 
mark  and  the  recollection  of  his  origin  and  former  state  still 
adhere  to  him;  the  feelings  produced  by  that  condition,  in  his 
own  mind  and  in  the  minds  of  the  whites,  still  exist;  he  is 
associated  by  his  colour,  and  by  these  recollections  and  feel 
ings,  with  the  class  of  slaves;  and  a  barrier  is  thus  raised  be 
tween  him  and  the  whites,  that  is,  between  him  and  the  free 
class,  which  he  can  never  hope  to  transcend.  The  authority 
of  the  master  being  removed,  and  its  place  not  .being  supplied 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


393 


by  moral  restraints  or  incitements,  he  lives  in  idleness,  and  SECT.  IX. 
probably  in  vice,  and  obtains  a  precarious  support  by  begging  ^^-v-^/ 
or  theft.  If  he  should  avoid  those  extremes,  and  follow  some 
regular  course  of  industry,  still  the  habits  of  thoughtless  im 
providence  which  he  contracted  while  a  slave  himself,  or  has 
caught  from  the  slaves  among  whom  he  is  forced  to  live,  who 
of  necessity  are  his  companions  and  associates,  prevent  him 
from  making  any  permanent  provision  for  his  support,  by  pru 
dent  foresight  and  economy;  and  in  case  of  sickness,  or  of 
bodily  disability  from  any  other  cause,  send  him  to  live  as  a 
pauper,  at  the  expense  of  the  community." 

u  But  it  is  not  in  themselves  merely  that  the  free  people  of 
colour  are  a  nuisance  and  burden.  They  contribute  greatly 
to  the  corruption  of  the  slaves,  and  to  aggravate  the  evils  of 
their  condition,  by  rendering  them  idle,  discontented,  and  dis 
obedient  This  also  arises  from  the  necessity  under  which  the 
free  blacks  are,  of  remaining  incorporated  with  the  slaves,  of 
associating  habitually  with  them,  and  forming  part  of  the 
same  class  in  society.  The  slave  seeing  his  free  companion 
live  in  idleness,  or  subsist,  however  scantily  or  precariously, 
by  occasional  and  desultory  employment,  is  apt  to  grow  dis 
contented  with  his  own  condition,  and  to  regard  as  tyranny 
and  injustice  the  authority  which  compels  him  to  labour. 
Hence  he  is  strongly  incited  to  elude  this  authority  by  neglect 
ing  his  work  as  much  as  possible;  to  withdraw  himself  from 
it  altogether  by  flight,  and  sometimes  to  attempt  direct  resist 
ance.  This  provokes  or  impels  the  master  to  a  severity  which 
would  not  otherwise  be  thought  necessary;  and  that  severity, 
by  rendering  the  slave  still  more  discontented  with  his  condi 
tion,  and  more  hostile  toward  his  master,  by  adding  the  senti 
ments  of  resentment  and  revenge  to  his  original  dissatisfac 
tion,  often  renders  him  more  idle  and  worthless,  and  thus  in 
duces  the  real  or  supposed  necessity  of  still  greater  harshness 
on  the  part  of  the  master.  Such  is  the  tendency  of  that  com 
parison  which  the  slave  cannot  easily  avoid  making,  between 
his  own  situation  and  that  of  the  free  people  of  his  own  colour, 
who  are  his  companions,  and  in  every  thing  except  exemption 
from  the  authority  of  a  master,  his  equals:  whose  condition, 
though  often  much  worse  than  his  own,  naturally  appears  bet 
ter  to  him;  and  being  continually  under  his  observation,  and 
in  close  contact  with  his  feelings,  is  apt  to  chafe,  goad,  and 
irritate  him  incessantly.  This  effect  indeed  is  not  always  pro 
duced,  but  such  is  the  tendency  of  this  state  of  things;  and  it 
operates  more  extensively,  and  with  greater  force,  than  is 
commonly  supposed." 
VOL.  L— 3  D 


394 


XEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 


PART  i.  «  But  this  effect,  injurious  as  it  must  be  to  the  character 
^~*^+s  an(]  conduct  of  the  slaves,  and  consequently  to  their  comfort 
and  happiness,  is  far  from  being  the  worst  that  is  produced  by 
the  existence  of  free  blacks  among  us;  a  majority  of  the  free 
blacks,  as  we  have  seen,  are,  and  must  be  an  idle,  worth 
less,  and  thievish  race.  It  is  with  this  part  of  them  that  the 
slaves  will  necessarily  associate,  the  most  frequently  and  the: 
most  intimately.  Free  blacks  of  the  better  class,  who  gain  a 
comfortable  subsistence  by  regular  industry,  keep  as  much  as 
possible  aloof  from  the  slaves,  to  whom  in  general  they  regard 
themselves  as  in  some  degree  superior.  Their  association  is 
confined,  as  much  as  possible,  to  the  better  and  more  respect 
able  class  of  slaves.  But  the  idle  and  disorderly  free  blacks 
naturally  seek  the  society  of  such  slaves  as  are  disposed  to  be 
idle  and  disorderly  too;  whom  they  encourage  to  be  more  and 
more  so,  by  their  example,  their  conversation,  and  the  shelter 
and  means  which  they  furnish.  They  encourage  the  slaves  to 
theft,  because  they  partake  in  its  fruits.  They  receive,  secrete, 
and  dispose  of  the  stolen  goods;  a  part,  and  probably  much 
the  largest  part,  of  which  they  often  receive,  as  a  reward  for 
their  services.  They  furnish  places  of  meeting  and  hiding 
places  in  their  houses,  for  the  idle  and  the  vicious  slaves; 
whose  idleness  and  vice  are  thus  increased  and  rendered  more 
contagious.  These  hiding  places  and  places  of  meeting  arc 
so  many  traps  and  snares,  for  the  young  and  thoughtless  slaves, 
who  have  not  yet  become  vicious;  so  many  schools  in  which 
they  are  taught,  by  precept  and  example,  idleness,  lying,  de 
bauchery,  drunkenness,  and  theft.  The  consequence  of  all 
this  is  very  easily  seen,  and  I  am  sure  is  severely  felt  in  all 
places,  where  free  people  of  colour  exist  in  considerable  num 
bers."* 

The  experience  of  the  states  north  and  east  of  the  Snsque- 
hannah,  with  regard  to  this  class  of  persons,  is  not,  on  the 
whole,  much  more  encouraging.  The  number  of  respectable 
individuals  is  considerably  greater  indeed,  but  the  character 
of  the  mass  nearly  the  same.  Nor  can  it  be  urged  that 
they  are  debarred  here,  access  to  the  ordinary  means  of  moral 
and  intellectual  regeneration.  On  the  contrary,  schools  are 
established  for  them;  they  are  aided  in  procuring  the  conve 
niences  for  religious  instruction  and  divine  worship;  they  are 
united  in  societies  adapted  to  produce  self-respect,  and  men 
tal  activity;  exemplary  attention  is  paid,  in  numerous  in- 

*  Letter  of  Robert  Goodloe  Harper,  Esq.  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
American  Colonization  Society.     August  20tli,  1817. 


SLAVE  TRADE.  395 

stances,  to  the  regulation  of  their  habits  and  principles.  They  SECT.IX. 
have  every  facility  which  is  enjoyed  by  the  labouring  classes  ****~v~**s 
among  the  whites,  of  acquiring  a  plain  education,  and  a  com 
fortable  subsistence,  and  of  making  provision  for  their  chil 
dren.     They  have  the  same  legal  security  in  person  and  pro 
perty,  and  generally,  the  same  political  rights  as  the  rest  of 
the  community. 

In  the  slave-holding  states,  they  do,  indeed,  labour  under 
civil  incapacities ;  and  the  policy  of  denying  them  the 
higher  privileges  of  citizenship,  is  imperative.  We  have  felt 
the  inconvenience  of  naturalized  Europeans  exercising  those 
privileges  in  distinct  bodies,  collected  and  animated  by  na 
tional  feeling;  the  risk  of  the  African  race  voting  and  legis 
lating  with  the  esprit  de  corps,  is  too  serious  to  be  incurred, 
even  where  all  of  the  race  might  be  free,  provided  they  should 
be  at  all  numerous;  and  to  incur  it  would  be  madness,  where 
a  considerable  number  of  them  should,  as  slaves,  remain  to  be 
irritated  and  goaded  to  revolt,  by  the  invidiousness  of  the  ex 
ample,  and  the  inevitable  conspiracy  of  the  others  for  the  uni 
versal  release  of  their  brethren.  If  we  suppose  that  the  mul 
titude  of  free  blacks  whom  Virginia,  for  instance,  has  now  in 
her  bosom,  would  exercise  the  privileges  of  citizenship,  were 
these  granted  to  them;  and  if  we  then  assume  the  natural 
consequences,  the  elevation  of  some  of  their  number  to  the 
legislature,  and  a  concert  of  views  and  action  among  the  whole, 
we  must  see  that  she  would  have  to  prepare  herself  at  once 
for  the  alternative  of  a  general  extinction  of  her  negro  sla 
very,  whatever  might  be  the  catastrophe;  or  of  the  establish 
ment  of  a  restraining  code  and  police  which,  if  it  proved 
effectual  to  prevent  that  danger,  must  aggravate  the  condition 
of  the  slave,  and  defer  the  period  at  which  his  emancipation 
might  otherwise  take  place.  "  The  experiment,  so  far  as  it 
has  been  already  made  among  us,"  says  Judge  Tucker, 
"  proves  that  the  emancipated  blacks  are  not  ambitious  of 
civil  rights.  To  prevent  the  generation  of  such  an  ambition, 
appears  necessary;  for  if  it  should  ever  rear  its  head,  its  par- 
tizans,  as  well  as  its  opponents,  will  be  enlisted  by  nature  her 
self,  and  always  ranged  against  each  other," 

20.  The  complaints  which  the  British  travellers  and 
reviewers  have  made  of  the  unjust  disfranchisement  of  the 
free  blacks,  have  then  no  foundation  in  fact,  as  regards  the 
eastern  states;  nor  in  sound  speculation,  in  reference  to  the 
southern.  The  disfranchisement  which  exists  in  the  latter, 
cannot  be  said  to  be  unjust,  if  injustice  in  the  business  of  life, 


396  .     NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PARTI,  be  not  a  mere  abstraction,  and  have  any  thing  to  do  with  the 
v-*p~v~^»'^  consideration  of  self-preservation,  and  the  welfare  of  the  ma 
jority.  All  qualifications  of  property  in  the  matter  of  election 
and  legislation  would  be  unjust,  and  the  doctrine  of  universal 
suffrage,  which  the  Edinburgh  Review  has  so  stoutly  com 
bated,  the  only  true  one,  if  the  above  mentioned  complaints 
were  admissible. 

With  what  an  ill  grace  does  reproach  on  the  subject  of 
disfranchisement,  come  from   an  Englishman!  One-fourth  of 
the  whole  united  kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland — 
four-fifths  of  the  population  of  Ireland  separately — are  inca 
pable  of  sitting  in  Parliament,  and  of  holding  various  civil  and 
military  stations.     The  motive  for  continuing  this  system  of 
exclusion  is  avowed  to  be  expediency.     A  large  portion  of  the 
most  intelligent  politicians  of  Great  Britain  deny  the  fact 
of  the  alleged  expediency;  and   surely,   in  the  case  of  the 
Catholics  of  England,  a  small  body,  confessedly  qualified  in 
point  of  understanding,  morals,  property,  tried  loyalty;  there 
could  be  no  practical  inconvenience,  as  there  is  not  even  pre 
tended  to  be  the  least  direct  danger,  in  admitting  them  to  all 
the  benefits  of  the  British  constitution;  except  only  that  their 
admission  might  render  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  more  earnest 
and  importunate  in  seeking  the  same  level.     The  case  of  the 
latter  even,  which  wears  a  more  plausible  air  as  to  expediency, 
is,  in  this  respect,  in  no  degree  so  strong  as  that  of  the  negroes 
in  our  southern  states,  and  infinitely  beyond  it  in  point  of 
practical  hardship  and  moral  deformity.*     England  disfran 
chises,  not  a  race  of  men  of  a  different  complexion  from  her 
own,  and  of  inveterate  heterogeneity;  degraded,  in  the  gene 
ral  estimation  of  the  European  race,  and  who  had  been  forced 
upon  her  hands  by  another  country;  insensible  to  the  value 
of  political  rights,  and  incompetent  to  exercise  them  benefi 
cially;  but  a  people  in  whose  favour  all  the  natural  sympa 
thies,  and  most  endearing  natural  affinities  plead  to  her  heart; 
whom  she  and  all  the  civilized  world  acknowledge  to  be  their 
equals  in  the  choicest  endowments  of  mind  and  body;  whose 
country  she  invaded  and  whose  independence  she  crushed; 
among  whom  she  established  by  the  sword  that  reformed  re 
ligion,  the  dissent  from  which  is  the  pretext  for  their  disfran 
chisement;  to  whom  she  owes  a  boundless  retribution  for  ages 
of  acknowledged  misgovernment  and  oppression,  and  gratitude 
for  the  most  important  services  and  aids  rendered  to  her  in 
every  branch  of  her  public  business. 

*  See  Note  V. 


SLAVE  TRADE, 


397 


21.  Nothing  can  be  more  false  than  the  representations  of  SECT. IX. 
the  English  travellers  concerning  the  treatment  of  the  free  v^"v>^ 
blacks  by  the  whites  in  the  middle  and  eastern  states.  It  is  . 
not  true  that  they  are  "  excluded  from  the  places  of  public 
worship  frequented  by  the  whites;'7  that  "  the  most  degraded 
white  will  not  walk  or  eat  with  a  negro;"  or  that  they  are 
u  practically  slaves."*  Their  situation  as  hired  domestics, 
mechanics,  or  general  labourers,  is  the  same  in  all  respects  as 
that  of  the  whites  of  the  same  description;  they  are  fed  and 
paid  as  well;  equally  exempt  from  personal  violence,  and  free 
to  change  their  occupation  or  their  employer.  They  approach 
us  as  familiarly  as  persons  of  the  correspondent  class  in  England 
approach  their  superiors  in  rank  and  wealth;  and,  in  general, 
betray  much  less  servility  in  their  tone  and  carriage.  They 
do  not  make  part  of  our  society,  indeed;  they  are  not  invited 
to  our  tables;  they  do  not  marry  into  our  families;  nor  would 
they,  were  they  of  our  own  colour,  with  no  higher  claims 
than  they  possess,  on  the  score  of  calling,  education,  intelli 
gence,  and  wealth.  I  confess  that  whatever  claims  they 
might  possess  in  these  or  other  respects,  those  are  advantages 
from  which  they  would  be  excluded;  there  must  remain,  in 
any  case,  a  broad  line  of  demarcation,  not  viewed  as  an  incon 
venience  by  them,  but  indispensable  for  our  feelings  and  inte 
rests.  Nature  and  accident  combine  to  make  it  impassable. 
Their  colour  is  a  perpetual  memento  of  their  servile  origin, 
and  a  double  disgust  is  thus  created.  We  will  not,  and 
ought  not,  expose  ourselves  to  lose  our  identity  as  it  were;  to 
be  stained  in  our  blood,  and  disparaged  in  our  relation  of 
being  towards  the  stock  of  our  forefathers  in  Europe.  This 
may  be  called  prejudice;  but  it  is  one  which  no  reasoning 
can  overcome,  and  which  we  cannot  wish  to  see  extinguished. 
We  are  sure  that  it  would  prevail  in  an  equal  degree  with 
any  nation  of  Europe  who  might  be  circumstanced  like  our 
selves;  we  do  not  find  it  so  gross  in  itself,  or  so  hurtful  and 
unjust  in  its  operation,  as  those  of  an  analogous  cast  which  we 
see  prevailing  in  England.  "  Men  of  true  speculation,"  says 
Mr.  Burke,  u  instead  of  exploding  general  prejudices,  employ 
their  sagacity  to  discover  the  latent  wisdom  which  prevails  in 
them.  If  they  find  what  they  seek,  they  think  it  more  wise 
to  continue  (he  prejudice,  with  the  reason  involved,  than  to 
cast  away  the  coat  of  prejudice,  and  leave  nothing  but  the 
naked  reason." 

*  These  are  the  allegations  of  Fearon  ;  worthy  of  notice  only  so  fur 
as  they  have  been  employed  as  texts  by  the  Reviewers.  See  Note  W. 


398  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

'PART  I.  22.  The  unfortunate  condition  and  character  of  the  free 
•^~v-«^>  blacks  generally,  are  not  imputable  to  the  whites;  but  to  the 
existence  itself  of  negro  slavery  among  us,  and  to  the  circum 
stance  of  a  distinctive  colour.  The  iirst  is  the  work  of  Erg- 
land;  the  other  of  nature.  As  the  case  is,  we  need  not  be  sur 
prised,  nor  can  we  much  lament,  that  some  of  the  southern 
states  have  passed  laws  to  discourage  manumission.  The 
enactment  of  such  laws  proves  that  the  practice  prevailed,  or 
was  likely  to  prevail,  notwithstanding  the  injuriousness  of  (tie 
effects.  We  know  lhat  many  thousands  of  the  planters  of  t  le 
old  states  in  the  souih,  are  restrained,  not  by  the  laws,  but  >y 
a  tenderness  and  sense  of  duty  to  the  negroes  themselves,  a  id 
to  the  commonwealth.  There  are  few  Americans  capable  of 
reasoning  calmly  and  from  experience,  on  this  subject,  who  lo 
not  concur,  in  reference  to  the  southern  states  at  least,  in  tie 
following  sentiments  of  the  enlightened  and  benevolent  e  i- 
quirer,  whose  accurate  representation  of  the  condition  of  t  ic 
free  blacks  I  have  quoted  above. 

"The  considerations  stated  in  the  first  part  of  this  letUr, 
have  long  since  produced  a  thorough  conviction  in  my  min>l, 
that  the  existence  of  a  class  of  free  people  of  colour  in  this 
country  is  highly  injurious,  to  the  whites,  the  slaves,  and  the 
free  people  of  colour  themselves:  consequently,  that  all  eman 
cipation,  to  however  small  an  extent,  which  permits  the  per 
sons  emancipated  to  remain  in  this  country,  is  an  evil,  which 
must  increase  with  the  increase  of  the  operation,  and  would 
become  altogether  intolerable,  if  extended  to  the  whole,  or 
even  to  a  very  large  part,  of  the  black  population.  I  an), 
therefore,  strongly  opposed  to  emancipation,  in  every  shape 
and  degree,  unless  accompanied  by  colonization." 

Colonization  is,  in  fact,  the  only  reliance  in  this  great  ques 
tion.  Without  it,  no  plan  of  abolition  can  be  effectual  for 
the  security  of  the  whiles,  or  the  good  of  the  blacks;  since 
the  permanence  of  the  latter,  free  or  enslaved,  within  the 
abode,  or  the  neighbourhood,  of  the  former,  is  the  main  dan 
ger.  Colonization  is,  no  doubt,  itself  attended  with  appalling 
difficulties.  The  aspect  of  these  difficulties  prevented  the 
legislature  of  Virginia  from  adopting,  at  an  early  period,  a  bill, 
prepared  by  a  committee,  for  gradual  emancipation  in  that 
state.  Jt  was  thought,  and  not  without  reason,  that  to  plant 
a  nation  of  negroes  in  the  American  territory,  would  be  to  lay 
the  foundation  of  intestine  wars  which  could  terminate  only 
in  their  extirpation  or  final  expulsion;  that  to  assign  them  a 
country  beyond  the  settlements  of  the  whites,  would  be  to  put 
them  on  a  forlorn  hope  against  the  Indians.  The  expense  of 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


399 


their  transportation  and  establishment  presented  itself,  also,  as  SECT.ix. 
an  obstacle  little  short  of  insurmountable.*  v^^-^x 

The  expedient  of  transplanting  the  free  blacks  to  the  coast 
of  Africa;  of  opening  there  a  receptacle  for  our  black  popula 
tion  at  large;  occurred  to  the  Virginia  legislature  in  the  be 
ginning  of  the  present  century.  At  the  solicitation  of  that 
body,  the  federal  government  endeavoured,  in  1802,  through 
Mr.  King,  the  American  minister  in  London,  to  negotiate  with 
the  Sierra  Leone  Company,  for  the  admission  of  the  American 
blacks  into  their  colony.  But  the  application  did  not  succeed; 
and  the  same  fate  attended  a  similar  attempt,  which  was  made 
with  Portugal,  to  obtain  an  establishment  for  them  within  her 
South  American  dominions. 

While  the  British  slave  trade  continued,  no  hope  could  be 
entertained  of  the  prosperity  of  such  an  establishment  on  the 
coast  of  Africa.  uTo  account,"  said  the  Edinburgh  Review, 
in  1805,  u  for  the  failure  of  the  Sierra  Leone  plan,  it  is  quite 
sufficient  to  reflect,  that  it  was  undertaken  in  1791,  on  the 
supposition  then  so  natural,  of  the  slave  trade  being  about  to 
cease; — that,  instead  of  this  expectation  being  realized,  the 
traffic  in  question  increased  daily  and  hourly  in  growth;  that 
the  company  in  vain  besought  Parliament  to  check  the  trade, 
at  least  in  the  narrow  district  where  the  colony  was  planted." 
In  sending  our  negroes  thither,  we  should  only  have  been  fur 
nishing  aliment  for  that  insatiable  passion  which  occasioned 
the  introduction  of  the  race  into  our  own  country.  Constantly 
expecting  a  rupture  with  Great  Britain,  or  actually  engaged 
in  hostilities  with  her,  from  the  period  of  her  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade,  it  is  only  of  late  that  we  could  again  look  to  the 
coast  of  Africa.  The  project  of  making  a  settlement  in  that 
quarter,  for  the  purpose  of  gradually  restoring  our  black  popu 
lation  to  their  native  region,  and  thus  extirpating  the  slavery 
which  we  detest,  and  fear,  has  been  revived.  As  soon  after 
the  conclusion  of  the  peace  in  1815,  as  our  political  circum 
stances  would  permit,  a  society,  styled  the  American  Coloni 
zation  Society,  was  formed  in  the  south,  on  the  most  liberal 
plan,  and  under  the  most  distinguished  auspices.  It  enjoys  the 
particular  patronage  of  the  legislature  of  Virginia;  has  the 
countenance  and  aid  of  the  federal  government;  and  appears 
to  be  viewed  with  an  eye  of  favour  by  the  slave-holding 
states.  Auxiliary  societies  have  been  organized  in  different 
parts  of  the  country,  and  will,  probably,  multiply  fast,  and 
excite  every  where  an  interest  in  the  important  object,  which 

*  Tucker's  Notes  on  Blackstone. 


400  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  r.  will  greatly  facilitate  its  success.  The  principal  society  has 
V^N~^/  already  caused  the  western  coast  of  Africa  to  be  explored,  and 
is  sanguine  as  to  the  practicability  of  the  plan  of  settlement 
in  some  district  of  that  coast.  I  must  confess  that  I  have 
no  hope  of  its  success.  The  British  government,  whatever 
may  be  its  professions,  will  not  allow  any  establishment  to 
thrive  and  be  perpetuated,  which  may  interfere  with  its  par 
ticular  views  in  that  direction.  As  long,  moreover,  as  the 
slave  trade  is  prosecuted  in  its  present  frightful  extent,  or.  in 
deed,  until  it  shall  be  contracted  within  very  narrow  limits, 
no  colony  which  we  may  form,  can  be  prevented  from  be 
coming,  either  its  prey,  or  one  of  its  factories.  The  act  ng 
attorney-general  of  Sierra  Leone  declared  in  1813,  on  he 
trial  of  certain  persons  for  an  infraction  of  the  British  aboli 
tion  laws,  that  the  town  itself,  Sierra  Leone,  was  "  the  heart 
from  which  all  the  arteries  and  veins  of  the  slave-trading  sys 
tem  had  for  years  been  animated  and  supplied."*  The  direc 
tors  of  the  African  Institution},  in  their  answers  to  the  queries 
of  Lord  Castlereagh,  already  cited,  hold  the  following  h  n- 
guage.  "  Sierra  Leone,  and  its  immediate  neighbourhood, 
may  be  considered  as  the  only  part  of  the  African  coast  where 
plans  of  improvement  can  be  pursued  without  immediately 
encountering  the  malignant  influence  of  the  slave  trade.  It  is 
almost  necessary,  therefore,  to  confine  within  that  sphere,  at 
least  for  the  present,  any  direct  efforts  made  for  the  civilization 
and  improvement  of  Africa.  Even  the  establishment  formed 
in  the  Rio  Pongas,  for  the  instruction  of  the  natives,  it  is  fear 
ed,  must  be  withdrawn,  in  consequence  of  the  revival  of  the 
slave  trade." 

Though,  from  the  commercial  jealousy  of  Great  Britain, 
the  prevalence  of  the  slave  trade,  or  our  liability  to  be  involved 
in  wars  with  the  European  nations,  which  would  interrupt 
our  communication  with  Africa,  we  should  be  obliged  to  with 
draw  our  aims  from  that  continent,  the  plan  of  colonization 
may,  I  think,  still  be  pursued  on  our  own,  with  equal  conve 
nience  and  less  risk  of  final  miscarriage.  I  will  not  undertake 
to  point,  out  the  spot  for  its  execution;  this  does  not  belong  to 
my  subject;  but  there  cannot  be  wanting  a  spot  within  our 
reach,  free  from  all  invincible  objections.  The  object  is  of 
infinite  importance;  it  calls  for  the  earnest  attention  of  the 
whole  nation,  and  the  unanimous  agency  of  the  federal 

*  See  Dr.  Thorpe's  View  of  the  present  increase  of  the  Slave 
Trade,  p.  71, 


SLAVE  TRADE.  401 

government.  "The  alarming' danger,"  says  General  Harper,*  SECT. IX. 
"  of  cherishing  in  our  bosom  a  distinct  nation,  which  can  ne-  ^^-v^^> 
ver  become  incorporated  with  us,  while  it  rapidly  increases 
in  numbers;  a  nation  which  must  ever  be  hostile  to  us,  from 
feeling  and  interest;  the  danger  of  such  a  nation  in  our  bosom, 
need  not  be  pointed  out  to  any  reflecting  mind.     It  speaks  not 
only  to  our  understanding,  but  to  our  very  senses." 

23.  In  defiance  of  the  lessons  of  history  and  of  the  true 
philosophy  of  the  human  mind,  the  British  writers  have  in- 
sisied,  that  freedom  must  be  altogether  an  empty  name  in  the 
country  where  domestic  slavery  is  established.  Their  doc 
trine  would  deprive  Greece  and  Rome  of  the  distinction,  upon 
which  the  admiration  of  mankind  for  those  republics  has 
been  chiefly  built.  Freedom  would  be  just  born,  as  it  were, 
in  the  world.  u  In  every  age  and  country,"  says  Hallam,  in 
his  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,  "  until  times  comparatively 
recent,  personal  servitude  appears  to  have  been  the  lot  of  a 
large,  perhaps  the  greater  portion  of  our  species.  We  lose  a 
good  deal  of  our  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  freedom  in 
Greece  and  Rome,  when  the  importunate  recollection  occurs 
to  us,  of  the  tasks  which  might  be  enjoined,  and  the  punish 
ments  which  might  be  inflicted,  without  control  either  of  law 
or  opinion,  by  the  keenest  patriot  of  the  Comitia,  or  the 
Council  of  Five  Thousand.  A  similar,  though  less  powerful 
feeling,  will  often  force  itself  on  the  mind,  when  we  read  the 
history  of  the  middle  ages." 

The  institution  of  slavery  in  the  ancient  republics  was  at 
tended  with  every  circumstance  which  might  appear  incom 
patible  with  the  prevalence  of  true  liberty,  or  of  the  moral  and 
political  virtues  of  the  highest  class. f  But  who  can  deny  to 
Greece  and  Rome  an  ample  share  of  those  honours?  "We 
feel,"  says  Ferguson,  in  his  Essay  on  the  History  of  Civil 

*  Letter  to  the  American  Colonization  Society. 

-{•  "  In  the  ancient  states,3' says  the  Scottish  philosopher,  Millar,  in 
his  Origin  of  Ranks,  "so  celebrated  upon  account  of  their  free  govern 
ment,  the  bulk  of  their  mechanics  and  labouring1  people  were  denied 
the  common  privileges  of  men,  and  treated  upon  the  footing  of  inferior 
animals.  In  proportion  to  the  opulence  and  refinement  of  those  nations, 
the  number  of  their  slaves  was  increased,  and  the  grievances  to  which 
they  were  subjected  became  the  more  intolerable." 

"  Allowing  five  persons  to  each  family,  the  Athenian  slaves  exceeded 
the  freemen  in  the  proportion  of  between  two  and  three  to  one  In 
the  most  nourishing  periods  of  Rome,  when  luxury  was  earned  TO  so 
amazing  a  pitch,  the  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  reduced  into  servi 
tude  was  in  all  probability  greater." 

VOL.  I.—3  E 


402 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 


PART  I.  Society,  "  the  injustice  of  the  institution  of  slavery  at  Sparta. 
^^^-^  We  suffer  for  the  helot;  but  we  think  only  of  the  superior  or 
der  of  men  in  this  state,  when  we  attend  to  that  elevation  an  \ 
magnanimity  of  spirit,  for  which  danger  had  no  terror,  interest 
no  means  to  corrupt;  when  we  consider  them  as  friends  or  as 
citizens,  we  are  apt  to  forget,  like  themselves,  that  slaves  hav2 
a  title  to  be  treated  like  men." 

Hallam,  in  the  work  which  I  have  quoted  above,  has  con 
tended  for  the  freedom  of  the  English  consiiiuiion  during  the 
days  of  English  villeinage,  and  ascribed  to  the  commons  cf 
those  days  a  proud  sense  and  tenaciousness  of  equality  in  civil 
rights.  In  what  manner  the  villeins  were  treated,  and  in  whst 
light  viewed,  will  be  understood  from  the  following  passage  cf 
this  author. 

"By  a  very  harsh  statute  in  the  reign  of  Richard  II.  m 
servant  or  labourer  could  depart,  even  at  the  expiration  of  his 
service,  from  the  hundred  in  which  he  lived,  without  permis 
sion  under  the  king's  seal;  nor  might  any  one  who  had  beei 
bred  to  husbandry,  till  twelve  years  old,  exercise  any  other 
calling.  A  few  years  afterwards,  the  commons  petitioned 
that  villeins  might  not  put  their  children  to  school,  in  order  to 
advance  them  by  the  church;  'and  this  for  the  honour  of  ail 
the  freemen  of  the  kingdom.'  In  the  same  parliament  they 
complained,  that  villeins  fly  to  cities  and  boroughs  where  their 
masters  cannot  recover  them,  and  prayed  that  the  lords  might 
seize  their  villeins  in  such  places,  without  regard  to  the  fran 
chises  thereof."* 

If  the  traits  which  I  have  cited  in  the  second  section  of  this 
volume,  from  the  early  political  history  of  the  southern  states, 
were  not  enough  to  convince  the  mother  country  of  the  compa 
tibility  of  the  love  and  possession  of  the  broadest  civil  liberty, 
with  the  institution  of  domestic  servitude,  the  part  which  they 
took  as  colonies  in  asserting  and  maintaining  the  rights  of 
America  against  her  scheme  of  usurpation,  ought  to  have  dis 
pelled  all  her  doubts  on  the  subject.  One  of  her  statesmen, 
at  least,  an  adept  in  the  science  of  human  nature,  did  not 
remain  in  error;  but  placed  the  question  before  her  in  the 
just  and  full  light,  as  an  admonition  against  perseverance  in 
her  perilous  career.  It  is  strange  that  it  should  be  necessary 
to  repeat,  for  the  instruction  of  some  of  her  most  witted  wri 
ters  of  the  present  day,  the  following  passage  of  Burke's  speech 
on  the  conciliation  with  America. 

"  There  is  a  circumstance  attending  these  southern  Ameri 

*  Vol.  ii.  c.  viii. 


•SLAVE  TRADE,  403 

can  colonies,  which  makes  the  spirit  of  liberty  still  more  high  SECT. IX. 
and  haughty  there  than  in  those  to  the  northward.  It  is  that,  ^^^-^ 
in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  they  have  a  vast  multitude  of 
slaves.  Where  this  is  the  case  in  any  part  of  the  world,  those 
who  are  free,  are  by  far  the  most  proud  and  jealous  of  their 
freedom.  Freedom  is  to  them  not  only  an  enjoyment,  but  a 
kind  of  rank  and  privilege.  Not  seeing  there,  that  freedom, 
as  in  countries  where  it  is  a  common  blessing,  and  as  broad 
and  general  as  the  air,  may  be  united  with  much  abject  toilt 
with  great  misery,  uiih  all  the  exterior  of  servitude,  liberty 
looks,  amongst  them,  like  something  that  is  more  noble  and 
liberal.  I  do  not  mean  to  commend  the  superior  morality  of 
this  sentiment,  which  has  at  least  as  much  pride  as  virtue  in  it; 
but  I  cannot  alter  the  nature  of  man.  The  fact  is  so;  and  these 
people  of  the  southern  colonies  are  much  more  strongly,  and 
with  a  higher  and  more  stubborn  spirit,  attached  to  liberty 
than  those  of  the  northward.  Such  were  all  the  ancient 
commonwealths;  such  were  our  Gothic  ancestors;  such  in  our 
days  were  the  Poles;  and  such  will  be  all  masters  of  slaves, 
who  are  not  slaves  themselves.  In  such  a  people  the  haughti 
ness  of  domination  combines  with  the  spirit  of  freedom,  forti 
fies  it,  and  renders  it  invincible." 

All  our  experience  in  America,  since  the  revolution,  con 
firms  the  opinion  of  the  orator;  or,  at  least,  assures  us,  that 
the  citizens  of  the  slave-holding  states  understand  quite  as 
well,  and  cherish  as  fondly,  the  principles  of  republicanism, 
as  those  of  the  other  members  of  our  union.  Bryan  Edwards 
has  indicated  in  the  character  and  demeanour  of  the  West  ; 
Indians,  what  we  find  universal  among  our  south  and  south 
western  brethren.  "  Of  the  character,"  says  this  author. 
"  common  to  the  white  residents  of  the  West  Indies,  it  ap* 
pears  to  me  that  the  leading  feature  is  an  independent  spirit, 
and  a  display  of  conscious  equality,  throughout  all  ranks  and 
conditions.  The  poorest  white  person  seems  to  consider  him 
self  nearly  on  a  level  with  the  richest,  and,  emboldened  by 
this  idea,  approaches  his  employer  with  extended  hand,  and 
a  freedom  which,  in  the  countries  of  Europe,  is  seldom  dis 
played  by  men  in  the  lower  orders  of  life  towards  their  supe* 
riors.  It  is  not  difficult  to  trace  the  origin  of  this  principle. 
It  arises,  without  doubt,  from  the  pre-eminence  and  distinction 
which  are  necessarily  attached  even  to  the  complexion  of  a 
white  man,  in  a  country  where  the  complexion,  generally 
speaking,  distinguishes  freedom  from  slavery."* 

*  History  of  the  West  Indies,  ch,  i.  b-  iv 


404 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 


PARTI.  I  may  apply  in  the  same  way  the  following  representations 
v-^vr>w'  which  Edwards  makes  in  continuation.  u  Possibly  too,  the 
climate  itself,  by  increasing  sensibility,  contributes  to  create 
an  impatience  of  subordination.  But,  whatever  may  be  tha 
cause  of  this  consciousness  of  self-importance  in  the  Weft 
Indian  character,  the  consequences  resulting  from  it  are,  o  i 
the  whole,  beneficial.  If  it  sometimes  produces  an  ostenta 
tious  pride,  and  a  ridiculous  affectation  of  splendour,  it  more 
frequently  awakens  the  laudable  propensities  of  our  nature — 
frankness,  sociability,  benevolence,  and  generosity.  In  no 
part  of  the  globe  is  the  virtue  of  hospitality  more  generally 
prevalent,  than  in  the  British  sugar  islands.  The  gates  of 
the  planter  are  always  open  to  the  reception  of  his  guests.  To 
be  a  stranger  is  of  itself  a  sufficient  introduction." 

24.  There  is  some  plausibility  in  the  theory  of  the  Edin 
burgh  Review  concerning  the  effects  of  commanding  slaves 
upon  ihe  heart  and  the  morals.  But  it  is  not  established  by 
our  experience,  as  true  in  the  general.  The  native  citizen 
of  the  slave-holding  state  displays,  specifically,  as  much  sen 
sibility,  justice,  and  stedfastness,  in  all  the  domestic  and  social 
relations,  as  the  European,  of  whatever  country.  He  is  as 
strongly  influenced  by  the  ties  of  kindred  and  friendship;  as 
open  to  the  impressions  which  attemper  and  refine  our  nature. 
He  has  had  a  large  share  in  the  formation  and  administration 
of  our  institutions  and  laws;  in  all  the  executive  offices,  civil 
and  military;  and  we  have  never  discovered  in  him  any  parti 
cular  proneness  to  tyranny  or  inhumanity;  a  torpid  conscience, 
or  an  imperfect  sense  of  equity.  In  none  of  the  nobler  vir 
tues  ant!  qualities  has  he  ever  proved  deficient,  in  the  compa 
rison  with  the  individual  born  and  fashioned  among  freemen 
alone.  If  there  be  any  thing  contradistinguishing  in  his  man 
ners  and  disposition,  it  is  certainly  not  ferocity  or  even  harsh 
ness.  The  planter  of  our  old  southern  states  has  always  been 
rather  remarkable  for  his  urbanity  and  facility,  as  well  as  for 
the  dignity  and  liberality  of  his  sentiments.  Morals,  it  is  said, 
are  more  loose  in  the  slave-holding  states.  If  we  admitted  this 
to  be  the  case,  it  would  by  no  means  follow  that  the  institution 
of  slavery  is  the  principal  cause  of  the  relaxation.  An  original 
difference  of  religious  institutions,  and  maxims  of  conduct;  of 
soil  and  climate;  of  modes  of  livelihood  and  materials  of 
traffic;  of  circumstances  attending  the  connexion  with  the 
mother  country;  might  give  the  same  result.  Domestic  sla 
very  continues  in  Germany  and  the  northern  parts  of  Europe; 
it  has  disappeared  from  the  southern;  but  the  dissoluteness  of 


SLAVE  TRADE.  405 

these  is  notoriously  greater.  Hungary  is  more  in  the  odour  of  SECT.  IX. 
sanctity  than  the  kingdom  of  N'iples.  The  institution  in  v-*~v~w 
question  is  to  be  abhorred,  on  account  of  the  violence  which 
it  offers  to  human  rights,  and  the  abjection  to  which  it  reduces 
human  nature:  a  priori  it  would  seem  to  exert  a  fatal  influ 
ence  on  the  character  of  the  master;  but  our  experience  at 
least,  I  repeal  it,  would  not  justify  us  in  adopting  the  theory. 
When  we  investigate  the  dispositions  and  morals  of  the  Eu 
ropean  nations,  it  is  not  with  the  u  lowest  and  least"  of  them 
alone,  but  with  the  highest  and  greatest  that  we  venture  to 
compare  the  white  population  of  our  slave-holding  states.  It 
is  not  unknown  to  us,  that  in  Russia  the  number  of  slaves 
held  as  property,  and  subject  to  absolute  will,  is  sextuple  that 
of  our  negroes:*  That,  in  the  other  parts  of  Europe,  where 
the  institution  of  slavery  does  not  exist,  there  are  other  insti 
tutions  generating  an  hundred  fold  more  vice,  misery,  and 
debasement,  than  we  have  ever  witnessed  in  the  same  com 
pass  in  America. 

25.  The  laws  of  the  slave-holding  states  do  not  furnish  a 
criterion  for  the  character  of  their  present  white  population, 
or  the  condition  of  the  slaves.  Those  laws  were  enacted,  for 
the  most  part,  in  seasons  of  particular  alarm,  produced  by 
attempts  at  insurrection;  or  when  the  black  inhabitants  were 
doubly  formidable  by  reason  of  the  greater  proportion  which 
they  bore  to  the  whites,  in  number,  and  of  the  savage  state 
and  unhappy  mood  in~which  they  arrived  from  Africa.  The 
real  measure  of  danger  was  not  understood  but  after  long 
experience;  and  in  the  interval,  the  precautions  taken,  were 
naturally  of  the  most  jealous  and  rigorous  aspect.  That  these 
have  not  been  all  repealed,  or  that  some  of  them  should  be 
still  enforced,  is  not  inconsistent  with  an  improved  spirit  of 
legislation;  since  the  evils  against  which  they  were  intended  to 
guard  are  yet  the  subject  of  just  apprehension.  England  in 
undated  South  Carolina,  for  instance,  with  barbarians,  and 
now  reproaches  her  with  the  measures  which  she  took  for  her 
security  against  their  brute  force. 

There  is  no  Code  Mir  which  surpasses  in  atrocity  that 


*  See  the  Appendix  to  Storch's  Course  of  Political  Economy/ St. 
Petersburg1,  1815.  This  writer  states,  that  in  1782,  the  number  of 
male  peasants,  or  serfs,  of  the  crown,  amounted  to  4,675,000;  that  they 
could  be  hired  out,  sold,  given  away,  &c. ;  and  the  number  of  male 
slaves,  the  property  of  subjects,  he  estimates  at  6,678,000;  equally  at 
the  disposal  of  the  masters. 


406 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  ANi> 


PARTI,  part  of  the  British  statute  book  relating  to  Roman  Catholics.* 
**~>r>*'  What  Englishman  will  allow  us  to  make  this,  as  it  stood  be 
fore  Sir  George  Saville's  act,  or  even  as  it  now  stands,  th»; 
index  to  British  humanity  and  justice?  Acts  of  proscription 
are  still  suffered  to  remain  in  terrwem,  ready  for  a  barely  pos 
sible  emergence.  "The  laws  against  the  Catholics,"  said  the 
Bishop  of  Worcester,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  (May  19th 
1819,)  "  had  hitherto  been  administered  tenderly  and  sparing 
ly;  they  would,  doubtless,  continue  to  be  so  administered 
unless  some  event  should  occur  to  render  their  strict  enforcement 
necessary." 

Since  the  revolution,  most  of  the  southern  codes  have  beer; 
softened  in  regard  to  the  slave  police;  and  the  murder  of  a 
negro  is  now  capital  throughout  our  union,  except  in  one 
staie.  I  have  already  quoted  the  assertion  of  Dr.  Dickson. 
that  "the  harshness  of  the  slave  laws  is  but  little  softened  bv 
the  lenity  of  the  general  practice  in  the  British  sugar  islands.1- 
The  reverse  of  this  is  notoriously  true  of  the  American  states. 
The  patrol  laws,  for  example,  of  South  Carolina,  which  con 
tain  the  most  oppressive  of  her  regulations,  are  rarely  put  in 
execution.  In  Virginia,  the  interdict  laid,  at  the  time  of  what 
is  called  Gabriel's  insurrection,  upon  the  assemblage  of  ne 
groes, — a  "  seditious  meetings  bill,"  like  that  passed  by  the 
British  parliament  in  181 7,f — is  wholly  neglected.  No  re 
straint  in  this  respect  is  imposed  upon  them  by  their  masters, 
except  such  as  may  be  necessary  for  purposes  of  domestic  or 
der  and  labour. 

Before  our  revolution,  the  negro  slavery  of  this  country  was, 
as  we  have  seen,  acknowledged  to  be  universally  less  severe 
than  that  of  any  other  part  of  the  world.  It  has  undergone, 
since  that  event,  a  great  and  striking  amelioration.  To  this 
fact,  all  who  have  witnessed  and  compared  the  former  and 
present  lot  of  the  slaves  of  our  southern  states,  bear  the  most 
confident  testimony.  What  was  once  deemed  a  moderate 
treatment,  would  now  be  a  rigid  one;  and  the  tolerated  rigour 

*  "Laws,"  says  Mr.  Burke,  in  his  speech  at  Bristol,  previous  to  the 
election,  "  were  made  in  this  kingdom  against  Papists  as  bloody  as  any 
of  those  which  had  been  enacted  by  the  Popish  princes  and  states ; 
and  where  those  laws  were  not  bloody,  they  were  worse ;  as  they  were 
slow,  cruel,  outrageous  on  our  nature,  and  kept  men  alive,  only  to  insult 
in  their  persons  every  one  of  the  rights  and  feelings  of  humanity." 

f  By  the  standing  Riot  Jlct  of  England,  not  more  than  twelve  per 
sons  are  allowed  to  continue  together,  after  it  has  been  read  by  the 
magistrate.  Lord  Castlereagh  said  in  Parliament  in  1817,  that  "there 
was  not  on  the  statute  book  a  law  which  had  been  more  beneficial  tc 
the  country." 


SLAVE  TRADE.  407 

of  the  first  period  could  find  no  countenance  at  the  present.  SECT.ix. 
The  negro  has  gained  nearly  as  much  by  our  separation  from  ^-^-^w 
Great  Britain  as  the  white.     The  causes  of  this  undeniable 
fact  are  various  and  obvious. 

With  the  importation  of  the  Africans,  ceased  much  of  the 
dread,  which  the  slave  population  inspired,  while  it  was  con 
tinually  receiving  large  accessions  of  strangers.  At  this  time 
by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  slaves  of  the  old  states,  have 
been  born  and  brought  up  by  the  side  of  the  whites.  In  pro 
portion  as  the  indigenous  character  predominated,  the  propen 
sity  on  the  one  hand  to  shake  off  the  yoke,  and  the  mistrust  on 
the  other,  which  occasioned  its  aggravation,  regularly  di 
minished.  Another  circumstance  tended  to  render  the  slaves 
in  a  much  less  degree  objects  of  terror,  and  to  make  room  for 
the  kindlier  dispositions  of  our  nature  to  operate;  the  whites 
came  soon  to  exceed  them  considerably  in  number,  from  emi 
gration  added  to  natural  increase.  Brougham  has  speculated 
in  his  Colonial  Policy,  in  conformity  to  the  facts  in  our  case. 
"There  can  be  little  doubt,"  he  says,  " that  the  fatal  dis 
proportion  of  the  two  classes,  the  great  proportion  of  the  im 
ported  negroes,  and  the  cruel  treatment  of  the  slaves  in  gene 
ral,  would  be  all  materially  altered  by  any  revolution  that 
should  separate  the  colonies  from  the  parent  state,  while  the 
more  rigorous  administration  of  an  independent  community, 
would  lessen  the  danger  arising  from  such  a  mixture  of  ne 
groes,  or  such  abuses  of  the  slave  system  as  might  still  re 
main." 

Not  only  does  the  proportion  which  the  slaves  bear  to  the 
free  part  of  the  community,  contribute  to  determine  their  con 
dition,  but,  in  general,  the  greater  or  smaller  numbers  in  which 
they  belong  to  individuals.  The  abolition  of  entails  and  the 
rule  of  primogeniture,  together  with  the  evaporation  of  those 
old  prejudices  which  fettered  parental  affection  in  the  testa 
mentary  distribution  of  estates,  have,  since  the  establishment 
of  our  independence,  led  to  the  subdivision  of  every  kind  of 
property,  in  the  southern  communities.  The  negroes,  being 
more  widely  apportioned,  exist  in  smaller  bands,  and  are  of 
course  more  under  the  immediate  care  and  inspection  of  the 
masters,  in  whose  eyes  they  must  at  the  same  time  have, 
singly,  more  value.  The  interest  of  the  master  in  the  welfare 
of  the  slave  is  not  to  be  urged  as  a  full  security  against  ill 
usage;  but  it  cannot  fail  to  have  a  considerable  influence;  and 
it  has  been  constantly  increasing  from  the  enhancement  of 
the  price  of  negroes,  occasioned  by  the  demand  for  their  la- 
hour  in  the  new  states,  and  the  insufficiency  of  the  supplie? 


406 


iNEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 


PART  i.  which  the  illicit  importation  from  Africa  can  furnish.  Ti  fc 
^^^'^*-'  more  abundant  production  of  food,  the  increase  of  wealth 
with  the  planters,  and  more  strictness  of  principle  and  regi  - 
larity  of  habits,  (for  these  too  can  be  proved  to  be  among  the 
effects  of  the  revolution,)  have  redounded  likewise  to  the  ad 
vantage  of  the  slaves. 

It  is  not  to  be  doubted,  but  that  the  political  discussion  *, 
which  preceded  our  revolution,  the  spirit  of  the  institutioi  s 
which  grew  out  of  it,  and  the  diffusion  of  education,  excited 
a  greater  sensibility  to  human  rights;  a  quicker  sympathy 
with  human  sufferings;  a  more  general  liberality  of  sentimen  ; 
and  a  higher  pride  of  character,  in  the  slave-holding  part  of 
our  population.  Hence  a  new  public  opinion  sprung  up,  rt- 
quiring  a  system  of  lenity  and  generosity  in  the  government 
and  sustentation  of  the  slaves;  and  repressive,  not  only  of 
barbarity,  but  of  habitual  severity  in  any  marked  degree, 
and  of  what  may  be  equivalent  in  its  effects,  habitual  indif 
ference  and  estrangement.  These  abuses  have  become  dif  - 
reputable;  they  expose  the  man  who  is  guilty  of  them  to  tht 
disdain  and  reprobation  of  his  neighbours;  and  in  this  way 
are  more  efficaciously  checked  than  they  could  be  by  any 
legislative  enactments.  The  master  who  should  deprive  his 
negro  of  his  peculium, — the  produce  of  his  poultry  house  or 
his  little  garden;  who  should  force  him  to  work  on  holidays 
or  at  night;  who  should  deny  him  the  common  recreations,  01 
leave  him  without  shelter  or  provision  in  his  old  age,  would 
incur  the  aversion  of  the  community,  and  raise  obstacles  to 
the  advancement  of  his  own  interests  and  external  aims. 

26.  The  American  negro  slavery  is  almost  wholly  free  from 
two  of  the  grievances  which  characterize  that  of  the  West 
Indies — under-feeding  and  over-working.  With  regard  to  the 
great  article  of  food,  the  American  negroes  are,  assuredly, 
better  supplied  than  the  free  labourers  of  most  parts  of 
Europe.  Flesh  meat  is  not  attainable  for  the  latter  in  the 
same  quantity  which  is  commonly  given  to  the  first;  it  would 
seem,  (on  this  head  I  refer  to  the  quotations  which  I  have 
made  from  the  Quarterly  Review,*)  not  to  be  attainable  at  all 
for  the  poorer  classes  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  In  respect 
to  clothing  and  lodging,  the  comparison  would  give  nearlv 
the  same  result.  On  the  score  of  fuel,  the  want  of  which 
occasions  so  much  suffering  in  particular  counties  of  Great 
Britain,  and,  as  to  the  point  of  labour,  the  advantage  is  greatly 

*  Seepage  228. 


SLAVE  TRADE.  4Q9 

fon  the  side  oi'  the  American  negroes  in  general.  I  cannot,  SECT.  IX, 
here,  enter  into  the  details  of  the  system,  upon  which  they  are  ^^^^^^ 
worked  on  the  southern  plantations;  but  I  can  say  of  it,  that 
it  involves  nothing  like  the  same  intensity,  duration,  or  con 
tinuity  of  exertion,  which  would  appear  to  be  indispensable 
in  Great  Britain,  in  almost  all  the  lower  walks  of  mechanical 
industry,  for  the  mere  support  of  animal  life.  The  average 
number  of  hours  of  daily  toil  exceeds  there  by  nearly  one 
half  that  which  is  exacted  under  the  system  just  mentioned. 
A  few  extracts  from  recent  debates  of  Parliament  will  deter 
mine  the  validity  of  this  assertion. 

In  the  House  of  Commons,  (April  29th,  1818,)  "Mr. 
Peel  said,  in  Manchester  alone,  11,600  children  were  em 
ployed  in  the  cotton  factories,  and  the  average  time  of  labour 
thirteen  hours  a  day.  Most  of  these  poor  children,  after  the 
thirteen  hours  of  labour,  were  obliged  to  go  to  school  to  learn 
to  write." 

"  Sir  Robert  Peel  said,  it  was  proved  that  in  Lancashire, 
children  were  employed  fifteen  hours  a  day,  and  after  any 
stoppage,  from  five  in  the  morning  until  ten  in  the  evening, 
seventeen  hours,  and  this  often  for  three  weeks  at  a  time.  On 
Sunday  they  were  employed  from  six  in  the  morning  until 
twelve  in  cleaning  the  machinery." 

"Mr.  Peter  Moore  said,  (May  13th,  1819,)  in  the  town 
which  he  had  the  honour  to  represent,  (Coventry,)  there 
were  five  classes  of  manufacturers,  each  working  ninety-six 
hours  in  the  week,  or  sixteen  hours  in  the  day.  The  first  of 
these  classes  gain,  in  return  for  their  labour,  ten  shillings  a 
week,  or  two  pence  halfpenny  an  hour,  which  is  but  a  very- 
trifling  share  of  what  they  were  formerly  in  the  habit  of  ac 
quiring.  The  second  class  gained  55.  6rf.  a  week.  The  third 
2s.  9d.,  which  is  labouring  four  hours  for  five  farthings.  The 
two  remaining  classes  receive  2s.  and  Is.  6d.  a  week,  which 
is  working  at  the  rate  of  seven  and  nine  hours  for  a  single 
halfpenny." 

"  Mr.  Mansfield  said,  (March  25th,  1819,)  that  he  had  at 
tended  a  committee  that  day,  before  whom  a  case  was  proved 
of  a  great  number  of  labourers,  who,  by  working  fifteen  or 
sixteen  hours  a  day,  could  not  earn  above  seven  shillings  per 
week." 

The  physical  condition  of  the  American  negro  is,  on  the 

whole,  not  comparatively  alone,  but  positively  good,  and  he 

is  exempt  from  those  racking  anxieties — the  exacerbations  of 

despair,  to  which  the  English  manufacturer  and  peasant  are 

VOL.  I.— 3  F 


410 


JNLGRO  SLAVERY  AND 


PART  I.  subject  in  the  pursuit  of  their  pittance.*  The  old  age  of  the 
'^-v^^-'  negro,  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  particularly,  is  by  no 
means  one  of  cheerlessness  or  destitution.  He  is  not  tasked 
beyond  his  strength;  he  is  sure  of  nutriment;  he  remains  in 
the  midst  of  his  comrades;  and,  in  most  cases,  has  a  family 
about  him  with  the  feelings  and  attractions  of  legitimacy:  for, 
the  polygamy,  and  promiscuous  intercourse  between  the  sexes, 
which  crown  the  abominations  of  West  India  slavery,  are  not 
common  features  in  the  North  American. 

We  have  it  upon  the  authority  of  the  Quarterly  Review, 
\that  the  great  body  of  the  British  people  "work  with  tht 
prospect  of  want  and  pauperism  before  their  eyes  as  what 
must  be  their  destiny  at  last;"  that  "  in  the  road  in  which  the 
English  labourer  must  travel,  the  poor  house  is  the  last  stage 
on  the  way  to  the  grave."!  If  we  are  entitled  to  form  an 
opinion  from  the  Parliamentary  Reports, — no  mean  authority, 
— this  final  stage  of  the  English  labourer  is  worse  than  any 
stage  in  the  career  of  the  American  negro.  The  ''victim  ot 
American  barbarity"  finds  in  his  "quarter"  comforts  which 
the  tenant  of  the  British  poor  house  might  envy,  and  can  ne 
ver  hope  to  enjoy. 

From  the  minutes  of  evidence  before  the  parliamentary  com 
mittee  on  the  state  of  the  poor,  it  would  appear,  that  the  treat 
ment  experienced  in  the  receptacles  provided  for  them,  is 
wretched  and  barbarous  almdst  beyond  credibility.  By  way 
of  example,  the  witnesses  stated  ihat  in  one  room  28  feet  long 
by  15  wide,  there  were  two  and  twenty  persons  sleeping;  that 

*  I  appeal  to  the  petitions  presented  to  Parliament  by  bodies  often, 
and  twenty  thousand  agriculturists  and  manufacturers  at  a  time.  The 
following  representation,  made  by  Mr.  Brougham  in  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  may  be  taken  as  a  specimen  of  their  condition. 

"  Mr.  Brougham  observed  that  the  weavers,  in  consequence  of  the 
reduction  of  their  wages,  were  compelled  first,  to  part  for  their  suste 
nance  with  all  their  trifling  property  by  piece-meal,  from  the  little  fur 
niture  of  their  cottages  to  the  very  bedding  and  clothes  that  used  to 
cover  them  from  the  weather.  They  struggled  on  with  hunger,  and 
went  to  sleep  at  night-fall,  upon  the  calculation  that  if  they  worked  an 
hour  or  two  later,  they  might  indeed  earn  three  halfpence  more,  one 
of  which  must  be  paid  for  a  candle,  but  then  the  clear  gain  of  a  penny 
would  be  too  clearly  bought,  and  leave  them  less  able  to  work  the  next 
day.  To  such  a  frightful  nicety  of  reckoning  are  human  beings  reduced, 
treating  themselves  like  mere  machines,  and  balancing  the  produce 
against  the  tear  and  wear,  so  as  to  obtain  the  maximum  that  their  phy 
sical  powers  can  be  made  to  yield!  At  length,  however,  they  must 
succumb  ;  the  workhouse  closes  their  dismal  prospect;  or,  with  a  re 
luctance  that  makes  their  lot  a  thousand  times  more  pitiable,  they  sub 
mit  to  take  parish  relief ;  and,  to  sustain  life,  part  with  the  indepen 
dent  spirit,  the  best  birthright  of  an  English  peasant." 

f  See  page  287. 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


411 


idiots  lived  promiscuously  with  the  other  paupers;  that  the  SECT,  ix 
fowls  and  chickens  were  kept  in  the  pantries  where  the  food  ^-^v^^ 
for  the  poor  was  kept;  that  they  were  in  general  extremely  .ill 
clothed,  &c.  The  parishes  contracted  with  individuals  for 
keeping  their  poor  at  so  much  a  head,  and  made  them  thus 
victims  of  avaricious  speculation.  It  was  shown  that  one  in 
dividual  farmed  the  poor  of  no  less  than  forty  parishes,  re 
ceiving  six  shillings  a  week  for  each  pauper;  and  spending  of 
course  as  little  as  possible  of  this  stipend  for  the  accommoda 
tion  of  his  guests.  London  had  eighteen  thousand  poor  in  the 
different  workhouses  in  England.  I  refer  to  the  Report  of 
the  House  of  Commons  on  Mendicity,  for  a  general  picture 
of  the  condition  of  the  paupers  in  those  work-houses. 

"  Your  committee,"  says  the  Report,  "  cannot  hesitate  to 
suggest  that  there  are  not  in  the  country  a  set  of  beings  more 
immediately  requiring  the  protection  of  the  legislature  than 
the  persons  in  a  state  of  lunacy  and  mendicity,  a  very  large 
proportion  of  whom  are  entirely  neglected  by  their  friends  and 
relations.  If  the  treatment  of  those  in  the  middling  or  in  the 
lower  classes  of  life,  shut  up  in  hospitals,  private  mad-houses, 
or  parish  work-houses,  is  looked  at,  your  committee  are  per 
suaded  that  a  case  cannot  be  found,  where  the  necessity  for  a 
remedy  is  more  urgent." 

The  details  of  the  Report  recall  to  mind,  but  with  features  of 
tenfold  patheticalness,  the  touching  lament  of  the  poet  Crabbe : 

"  Then  too  I  own,  it  grieves  me  to  behold 
Those  ever  virtuous,  helpless  now  and  old, 
By  all  for  care  and  industry  approv'd, 
For  truth  respected,  and  for  temper  lov'd; 
And  who,  by  sickness  and  misfortune  try'd, 
Gave  Want  its  worth  and  Poverty  its  pride  : 
I  own  it  grieves  me  to  behold  them  sent 
From  their  old  home ;  'tis  pain,  'tis  punishment, 
To  leave  each  scene  familiar,  every  face, 
For  a  new  people  and  a  stranger  race ; 
For  those  who,  sunk  in  sloth  and  dead  to  shame, 
From  scenes  of  guilt  with  daring  spirit  came  ; 
Men,  just  as  guileless,  at  such  manners  start, 
And  bless  their  God  that  time  has  fenc'd  their  heart, 
Confirm'd  their  virtue  and  expelFdthe  fear 
Of  vice  in  minds  so  simple  and  sincere. 

Here  the  good  pauper,  losing  all  the  praise 
By  worthy  deeds  acquir'd  in  better  days, 
Breathes  a  few  months,  then  to  his  chamber  led, 
Expires  while  strangers  prattle  around  his  bed."* 

27.  The  religious  instruction  of  the  slaves  cannot  be  said 
to  be  an  object  of  immediate  care  with  the  majority,  or  any 

*  See  Note  X. 


412  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I  great  proportion,  of  the  American  masters;  but  they  are  fai 
•^  from  refusing  them  access  to  it,  in  any  form.  It  is  left  at  the 
option  of  the  negroes  to  frequent  the  churches  and  meeting 
houses,  which,  in  the  country,  have  universally  a  compart 
ment  for  their  occupation.  The  old,  or  infirm,  or  those  whose 
conduct  has  been  exemplary,  are  indulged  with  horses  to 
ride  to  sermons.  They  have,  in  numerous  instances,  houses 
of  worship  for  their  separate  use,  where  individuals  of  their 
own  number,  empowered  by  the  white  elders,  preach,  and 
discharge  the  other  functions  of  the  ministry.  Itinerant  mis 
sionaries  of  the  gospel  have  formed  congregations  of  them  in 
almost  every  district;  and  though  the  Christian  lecture  cannot 
be  otherwise  than  rare,  and  the  attendance  upon  it  loose,  yet 
enough  is  done  to  leave  a  salutary  impression,  and  to  make  it 
utterly  inconsistent  with  the  truth  to  say  of  them,  what  the 
Quarterly  Review  says,  no  doubt  with  great  truth,  of  two-thirds 
of  the  lower  order  of  people  in  all  the  large  cities  and  towns  of 
England,  and  of  "the  greatest  part  of  her  manufacturing  po 
pulace,  and  her  miners  and  colliers," — that  they  live  as  utterly 
ignorant  of  the  doctrines  and  duties  of  Christianity,  and  are  as 
errant  and  unconverted  Pagans,  as  if  they  had  existed  in  the 
wildest  part  of  Africa."* 

South  Carolina  has  had  a  great  share  of  the  obloquy  of  the 
British  travellers,  on  this  subject.  Their  outcry  will  riot  be  si 
lenced,  but  the  friends  of  justice  and  humanity  will  be  gratified, 
by  the  following  facts  which  I  extract  from  an  official  Report, 
dated  the  14th  June,  1819,  of  a  committee  of  the  Board  of 
Managers  of  the  Bible  Society  of  Charleston,  respecting  the 
progress  and  present  state  of  Religion  in  South  Carolina. 
*'  From  the  best  information  the  committee  have  been  able  to 
obtain,  they  find  that  the  Gospel  is  now  preached  to  about  six 
hundred  and  thirteen  congregations  of  Protestant  Christians; 
that  there  are  about  two  hundred  and  ninety-two  ordained 
clergymen  who  labour  amongst  them,  besides  a  considerable 
number  of  domestic  missionaries,  devoted  and  supported  by 
each  denomination,  who  dispense  their  labours  to  such  of  the 
people  as  remain  destitute  of  an  established  ministry.  From 
actual  returns,  and  cautious  estimates  where  such  returns  have 
not  been  obtained,  it  appears  that  in  the  state  there  are  about 
46,000  Protestants  who  receive  the  holy  communion  of  the 
Lord's  supper.  In  the  city  of  Charleston,  upwards  of  one- 
fourth  of  the  communicants  are,  slaves  or  free  people  of  colour: 
and  it  is  supposed  that  in  the  other  parts  of  the  state,  the 

*  See  page  288. 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


413 


proportion  of  such  communicants  may  be  estimated  at  about  SECT.  ix. 
one-eighth.     In  every  church  they  are  freely  admitted  to  attend  ^^^^-' 
on  Divine  service  —  in  most  of  the  churches  distinct  accommo-  • 
dations  are  provided  for  them,  and  the  clergy  in  general  make 
it  a  part  of  their  pastoral  care  to  devote  frequent  and  stated 
seasons   for  the   reliious   instruction   of  catechumen  from 


amongst  the  black  population." 

This  train  of  affairs  in  South  Carolina  is  somewhat  more 
creditable  than  that  in  the  British  West  Indies,  where  scarcely 
any  thing  has  been  done  for  the  conversion  of  the  negroes.  If 
we  did  not  see  by  the  statements  of  the  Quarterly  Review 
and  the  parliamentary  papers,  to  what  a  deplorable  extent  the 
initiation  of  the  people  of  England  into  Christianity  has  been 
neglected,*  we  should  find  it  difficult  to  believe  that  her 
established  church  had,  in  the  course  of  nearly  two  centu 
ries,  attempted  nothing  towards  the  regeneration  of  the  mil 
lions  of  heathens  who  have  been  held  in  bondage  in  her 
islands.  To  this  effect,  however,  is  the  testimony  of  all  the 
best  authorities  concerning  the  affairs  of  those  islands.  Mo 
ravian  missionaries  alone  had  sought  to  introduce  the  light  of 
the  Gospel  among  a  population  requiring  its  lessons  and  con 
solations,  more,  perhaps,  than  any  other  on  earth.  At  length 
the  late  Bishop  Porteus  founded  a  a  Society  for  the  conversion 
of  negro  slaves,"  which  has  been  nearly  inoperative.  With 
respect  to  the  British  planters  themselves,  it  is  asserted  in  a 
recent  work  entitled  to  full  credit,  that  u  there  is  not,  and  ne 
ver  was,  either  worship  or  instruction  of  any  kind  provided 
by  them  for  their  numerous  slaves."!  The  number  of  ne 
groes  in  the  British  West  Indies,  baptized  and  endoclrinated, 
bears  no  assignable  proportion  to  those  in  the  United  States. 

28.  The  British  philanthropists,  in  making  their  appeal  in 
favour  of  the  former,  have  seemed  to  consider  every  thing 
as  gained,  if  only  "  the  humblest  and  coarsest  necessaries  of 
/i/e,  the  protection  of  law,  and  the  assistance  of  labouring  cattle. 
could  be  secured  to  them  4  It  is  long  since  so  much  and  more 
has  been  secured  to  the  great  majority  of  the  North  American 
negroes:  and  the  irresistible  proof  offers  itself  in  the  increase 
of  their  numbers.  The  Edinburgh  Reviewers  would,  with 
all  their  ingenuity,  find  it  difficult  to  reconcile  the  aspersions 

*  See  Note  Y. 

f  Letters  on  the  West  Indies,  by  James  Walker,  London,  1818 
Letter  VI. 

t  Dickson's  Mitigation  of  Slavery.     Preface- 


414  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  I.  which  they  cast  upon  the  American  as  the  murderer  and  scaur- 
"-^•v-^^  ger  of  slaves,  with  the  fact  that,  according  to  the  rate  of  in 
crease  from  1790  to  1810,  the  number  of  years  required  tor 
the  duplication  of  our  slave  population  is  only  25.99.  The 
allowance  to  be  made  on  account  of  importations,  would  not 
extend  this  term  to  twenty-eight  at  the  utmost,  for  the  nat  i- 
ral  increase.  The  population  of  Great  Britain,  as  appears  by 
authentic  documents,  does  not  double  in  less  than  eighty  years* 
Even  in  the  most  unhealthy  districts  of  South  Carolina,  whe  -e 
rice  is  cultivated,  and  the  labour  of  the  negroes  comparatively 
severe,  they  do  not  diminish  in  numbers.  A  benevolent  pra  > 
tice  prevails  among  some  of  the  rice  planters,  of  paying  to  the 
overseers,  in  addition  to  their  regular  emoluments,  a  cert  an 
sum  per  head  (usually  ten  dollars)  for  the  annual  increas 3; 
and  it  has  proved  no  insignificant  source  of  revenue  to  the 
latter. 

"The  increase  of  the  American  slaves  and  people  of  co 
lour,"  says  the  Quarterly  Review  of  May,  1819,  "  appears  o 
have  been  in  a  much  greater  proportion  than  that  of  the  whle 
population,  and  it  is  not  improbable,  that  in  a  few  generations, 
the  negro  race  will  exceed  the  whites  in  all  except  the  eastern 
states.  The  number  of  slaves  in  the  United  States,  is  now 
above  two  millions,  and  including  the  free  negroes,  the  black 
population  of  America  constitutes  more  than  one-fourth  part 
of  the  whole."  If  all  this  were  accurate,  it  would  refute  at 
once  the  tales  which  the  orthodox  journal  has  so  often  repeat 
ed  con  amore,  respecting  the  treatment  of  that  black  popula 
tion.  It  is  marked,  however,  by  the  usual  ignorance,  or  spirit 
of  exaggeration,  where  America  is  in  question.  Our  census 
of  1810  teaches,  that,  according  to  the  ratio  of  increase  for 
the  twenty  years  preceding,  the  number  of  years  required  for 
the  duplication  of  the  whites  was  22.48;  and  that  required 
for  the  slaves,  as  I  have  mentioned,  25.99.  The  whites  in 
creased  from  1790  to  1810,  85.26  percent.;  the  slaves  70.75. 
The  mere  natural  increase  is  not,  however,  shown  exactly 
by  this  calculation.  We  should  deduct  the  annual  addition 
made  to  the  numbers  of  both  from  without,  which  would 
probably  leave  the  proportion  the  same.  The  whole  number 
of  slaves  in  1810,  was  1,191,364:  and  of  free  people  of  co 
lour,  186,466.  Together  they  did  not  equal  one-fourth  of 

*  "It  appears  by  Mr.  Pickman's  tables,"  says  the  Quarterly  Review, 
"that  the  population  of  England  and  Wales  has  nearhj  doubled  in  the 
last  hundred  years," — a  term  nearly  four  times  longer  than  that  require? 
for  the  duplication  of  the  American  negroes. 


SLAVE  TRADE.  415 

the  white  population,  which  was  5,862,092;  nor  make  but  SECT.IX. 
little  more  than  one-sixth  of  the  whole.  At  present,  the  *^-*^*s 
proportion  must  be  still  less,  as  the  raiio  of  increase  for  the 
white  population  is  undoubtedly  greater.*  In  1810,  the  white 
population  of  the  nine  slave-holding  states  of  that  period, 
amounted  to  2,153,455;  that  of  the  coloured,  free  and  en 
slaved,  to  1,242,862.  The  census  of  1820  will  give  three 
millions  at  least  of  white  population  in  the  slave-holding  coun 
tries  of  the  union;  and  not  more  than  1,700,000  of  black, 
allowing  for  the  addition  made  to  the  number  of  the  last  by 
illicit  importation.  Should  we  admit  the  ratio  of  increase  to 
be  the  same  for  both,  the  political  arithmetician  of  the  Quar 
terly  Review  would  find  it  difficult  to  solve  the  problem,  in 
how  many  generations  "  the  negro  race  will  exceed  the  whites," 
especially  if  he  be  confined  to  his  own  limitation — "in  all 
except  the  eastern  states,"  under  which  denomination  he 
could  not  mean  to  include  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois;  con 
taining  nearly  a  million  of  whites,  without  the  alloy  of  a  slave. 

29.  The  removal  of  considerable  numbers  of  the  slaves 
from  the  old  slave-holding  states,  to  the  south  and  souUj-vest, 
tends  materially  to  increase  the  relative  majority  of  the  whites 
in  those  states,  and  is  likely  to  continue,  so  as  greatly  to  lessen 
the  danger  to  which  they  may  be  held  to  be  exposed.  The 
slaves  emigrate  either  with  their  original  owners,  or  with  per 
sons  of  the  same  or  an  adjoining  state,  to  whom  they  are  sold, 
and  who  purchase  them  for  their  own  use;  or  with  the  negro 
traders  as  they  are  called.  The  greater  number  go  with  the 
two  first  descriptions  of  persons,  to  a  more  fruitful  soil;  to  a 
climate  equally  or  more  favourable  to  their  constitutions;  alto 
gether  they  suffer  but  little,  if  at  all,  by  the  change  of  position. 
They  are  not,  in  general,  committed  to  a  new  master,  who  is 
unknown;  or  who  does  not  possess  the  best  teslimonials  as  to 
his  views,  and  the  respectability  of  his  character.  It  had  been 
long  the  practice  to  sell  the  intractable  slaves,  and  such  as  were 
guilty  of  crimes,  to  the  traders,  who  disposed  of  them  to  the 
planters  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia.  This  disposition 
even  of  culprits  may  scandalize  the  writers  of  the  Quarterly 
Review;  but  it  is  not  quite  so  harsh  as  that  of  selling  them  to 

*  The  operation  of  it  may  be  understood  from  the  following  state 
ment. 

In  1790,  for  every  100  free  persons,  there  were  22.13  slaves. 

In  1800          -          ditto 20.29     do. 

In  1810  ditto        -        -      ,--'.-        19.69    do. 


416  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  i.  the  Key  of  Tripoli*  would  have  been;  nor  worse  than  tin; 

^-^^w  transportation  of  the  British  convicts  to  Botany  Bay,  accord- 
ing  to  the  description  of  it  which  I  have  already  given  in  tho 
language  of  members  of  Parliament;!  or  to  the  character  of 
it  which  is  implied  in  the  following  extract  from  the  volume 
of  Parliamentary  Debates  for  the  year  1793.  "  Mr.  Fox  no 
ticed  the  mention  that  had  been  made  of  the  transportation  of 
convicts  to  Botany  Bay,  and  said,  that  the  hardships  of  tin; 
passage  would  appear  less  extraordinary,  when  it  was  known, 
that  the  transportation  was  undertaken  by  slave  merchants, 
and  slave  captains,  and  that  a  part  of  the  misery  of  the  con 
victs  was  the  effect  of  slave  fetters  being  used  instead  of  thos; 
employed  in  general  for  convicts. "J 

The  proportion  of  slaves  of  good  character,  whom  the  tra 
ders  obtain,  is  small  comparatively:  The  severance  or  disper 
sion  of  families  is  by  no  means  so  common  as  might  be  sup 
posed  from  the  tales  of  the  English  travellers.  This  evil  is 
produced  in  England  in  a  hundred  instances  to  one  that  oc 
curs  among  our  negroes,  and  with  tenfold  affliction,  by  tho 
extensive  emigration  which  the  public  burdens  occasion,  and 

*  The  Report  of  the  Parliamentary  proceedings  of  April,  1819,  fur 
nishes  the  following-. 

"Mr.  Bennet  said  (House  of  Commons)  he  had  no  high  opinion  of 
the  tender  sympathies  of  ministers  on  these  subjects.  He  had  in  his 
recollection  what  passed  on  the  subject  of  convicts  in  the  year  1789, 
when  they  were  first  sent  out;  when  (the  house  would  scarcely  believe 
it)  it  ivas  proposed  and  discussed  in  the  Privy  Council,  -whether  the  convict^ 
at  that  time  should  not  be  sold  to  the  Bey  of  Tripoli  as  slaves  !  This  propo 
sition  (the  proposition  of,  as  we  understood,  Lord  Auckland)  was  con 
sidered,  though  of  course  rejected;  though  it  showed  how  little  dis 
posed  the  government  were  at  that  time  to  attend  to  the  situation  of 
the  convicts.  At  the  same  time,  a  ship  that  was  sent  out  with  them  had 
not  any  settled  destination ;  and  the  sentences  of  some  of  the  convicts 
had  expired  before  they  reached  the  colony  to  which  they  were  a! 
length  consigned." 

-[  See  page  304. 

i  "From  the  year  1785  to  1801,  of  3833  convicts  embarked,  385  died 
on  board  the  transports,  being  nearly  one  in  ten."  O'//am*5  History  of 
JV*.  S.  Wales. 

"  The  difficulties,  which  for  a  long  course  of  years  attended  the  plan, 
for  sending  our  convicts  to  New  South  Wales,  gave  rise  to  the  convict, 
establishments  at  Woolwick,  Sheerness,  and  Portsmouth  :  where  grea' 
numbers  of  criminals  were  crowded  together  to  await  the  hour  of  their 
deportation,  under  circumstances  of  the  most  afflicting  nature  :  many, 
who  have  been  sentenced  to  transportation,  having  passed  the  wholr 
period  of  their  punishment  in  a  state  of  wretched  and  useless  impri 
sonment  at  home.     Such  was  then  the  condition   of  these  establish 
inents,  that  they  were  pronounced  in  the  House  of  Commons,  by  om: 
of  the  best  and  greatest  men  that  ever  entered  its  walls,  to  be  a  hot  be<i 
of  vice  and  wickedness."     Roscoe,   Observations  on  Penal  Jurisprudent 
1819. 


SLAVE  TRADE. 


417 


ihe  operation  of  the  poor  laws;  to  say  nothing  of  the  cases  so  SECT.IX. 
common  in  time  of  war,  of  seamen  impressed  when  returning  ^^~v-^*" 
from  distant  voyages,   and  that  even  without  being  allowed . 
the  comfort  of  seeing  their  families. 

Kidnapping  is  frequent;  but  the  states  have  universally 
subjected  it  to  the  severest  penalties;  some  of  them  to  that  of 
death.  As  great  an  abhorrence  for  it  pervades  the  whole 
country,  as  any  crime  can  be  supposed  to  excite  among  a 
moral  people.  The  flagellation  of  the  slaves  for  misdemeanors, 
or  from  the  impulses  of  anger,  or  churlishness  in  the  masters, 
is,  no  doubt,  too  common;  but  it  would  be  every  way  unjust 
to  judge  of  the  conduct  of  the  Americans  in  this  respect,  by 
what  passes  hi  the  West  Indies.  In  the  use  of  the  lash 
the  discipline  of  the  southern  plantations  is  contradistin 
guished  from  that  of  the  West  Indian,  as  much  as  in  the  de 
gree  of  labour  and  the  supply  of  food.  Public  opinion, 
and  all  the  other  causes  of  reformation  which  I  have  no 
ticed,  operate  equally  in  this  matter.  But  it  is  not  for  an 
Englishman  to  complain  of  the  use  of  the  lash  among  fo 
reigners.  The  hysterical  indignation  of  the  British  Reviewers 
and  travellers  on  this  head,  appears  even  ludicrous,  when  we 
advert  to  the  fact,  that  no  nation  employs  the  scourge  more  se 
verely  or  generally  than  the  British.  Education  with  her  is  con 
ducted  with  the  birch;  whipping  is  almost  her  sum  of  discipline 
in  the  army  and  navy;  the  seaman  is  flogged  from  ship  to  ship; 
the  soldier,  tied  up  to  the  halberds  and  exposed  in  the  most 
shameful  and  ignominious  manner,  dies  under  the  stripes  of  the 
drummer,  or  is  withdrawn  only  when  the  surgeon  who  watches 
his  ebbing  pulse,  declares  that  nature  can  bear  no  more.  The 
number  of  apprentices  in  Great  Britain  is,  probably,  little  less 
than  that  of  our  negroes;  corporal  punishment  is  as  familiarly 
inflicted  upon  them,  and  as  frequently  to  a  brutal  excess:  I 
attest  the  Old  Bailey  calendar,  when  I  assert,  that  they 
are  oftener  maimed  and  murdered  by  the  hand  of  the  mas 
ters.  So  horrid  and  multiplied  were  the  enormities  of  this 
kind,  which  accident  or  private  feeling  brought  to  light,  that 
the  legislature  was  compelled  to  interfere;  but  with  how  little 
effect  the  records  of  the  Assizes  and  the  tenor  of  the  late 
Parliamentary  Reports,  will  show.  In  short,  there  is  no  form 
of  human  suffering  which  an  Englishman  is  so  much  accus 
tomed  to  witness,  to  hear  and  to  read  of,  in  his  own  country, 
as  flagellation  in  all  its  varieties  and  degrees.  I  do  not  wish 
to  pursue  this  odious  topic,  on  which  reprisals  might  have  no 
end,  further  than  to  quote  a  passage  of  some  significancy  from 

VOL.  I.— 3G 


418  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

PART  i.    a  late   and   excellent   work  of  Mr.  Roscoe   of  Liverpool 
^-^vx*/  u  It  has  frequently  been  observed,  with  some  degree  of  exul 
tation,  that  torture  is  not  permitted  in  this  country.     If  b] 
torture  be  meant  the  subjecting  a  person  to  the  rack,  for  the 
purpose  of  compelling  him  to  give  evidence,  or  to  confess  ait 
impufed  crime,  this  country  is  certainly  not  chargeable  wit! 
so  diabolical  a  practice.     But,  if  the  lacerating  and  scourging 
the  person  of  an  individual,  as  a  punishment  for  his  offences, 
be  torture,  it  is  a  proceeding  not  only  well  known  to  our  laws, 
but  of  frequent  occurrence.    There  are,  in  fact,  few  mutilations 
or  sufferings  to  which  the  human  frame  can  be  subjected,  tha 
Iflave  not,  in  this  country,  at  one  time  or  another,  been  resort 
ed  to,  as  a  punishment  for  offenders;  nor  does  there  appear  to 
be  any  obstruction,  other  than  such  as  arises  from  the  more 
improved  and  humanized  spirit  of  the  times,  to  similar  punish 
ments  being  again  inflicted;  but  independent  of  these  barba 
rities,  the  use  of  the  whip  is  general  throughout  the  prisons  of 
the  kingdom,  where  prisoners,  for  small  offences,  are  whipped 
and  discharged.'1''* 

Those  advertisements  for  the  recovery  of  runaways,  whicl 
are  copied  into  the  English  Reviews,  and  books  of  Travels 
with  exclamations  of  such  horror  and  reproof,  as  though  Eng 
lish  newspapers  contained  nothing  to  chafe  the  feelings  oi 
humanity,  and  rouse  the  spirit  of  freedom,  are  incident  to  the 
existence  itself  of  negro  slavery;  and  I  think  I  have  shown 
that  this  is  an  evil  which  could  neither  be  avoided  nor  remov 
ed  by  America.  Negroes  cannot  be  held  as  property,  without 
being  subject  to  alienation.  A  mortmain  would  be  impracti 
cable,  and  if  it  could  be  established,  mischievous  to  all  par 
ties.  The  proclamation  of  the  intention  to  sell,  while  it  give^ 
effect  to  the  necessary  and  useful  right  of  alienation,  affords 
the  subject  of  it  a  better  chance  of  being  transferred  into  good 
hands.  At  all  events,  it  is  an  inevitable  incident  of  an  inevi 
table  institution.  Slaves  who  abscond  from  the  master  must 
be  reclaimed,  or  there  would  be  an  end  to  all  slavery  in  the 
most  mischievous  of  all  forms  of  abolition.  Without  the  aid 
of  the  public,  the  master  would  be  unable  to  recover  the  fugi 
tive.  And  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  latter  is,  quite  as  often, 
a  delinquent  seeking  independence  for  the  sake  of  licentious 
ness,  or  from  a  refractory  disposition,  as  a  victim  escaping  the 
exactions  of  avarice,  or  the  lash  of  tyranny.  Unfortunately, 
the  character  of  the  negro  race  with  us,  and  indeed  the  charac 
ter  which  is  produced  in  all  cases  of  bondage,  might  warrant, 

*  Observations  on  Penal  Jurisprudence,  1819. 


SLAVE  TRADE.  419 

a  presumption  more  unfavourable  to  the  slave.     His  flight  is,  SF.CT  IX. 
in  a  general  point  of  view,  a  violation  of  the  order  of  society,  s^"v^*' 
which  it  is  the  interest,  and,  abstractedly,  the  duty,  of  every, 
citizen  to  repress  and  correct. 

The  Quarterly  Review  of  May,  1819,  after  transcribing 
from  Fearon's  Travels  a  couple  of  plain  advertisements  of 
negroes  for  sale  or  hire,  which  that  missionary  had  extracted 
from  a  New  York  paper,  proceeds  thus — u  What,  subjoins 
Mr.  Fearon  with  an  amiable  warmth,  should  we  say,  if  in 
England  we  saw  such  advertisements  in  the  Times  newspaper? 
Should  we  not  conclude  that  freedom  existed  only  in  words? 
Such  would,  indeed,  be  a  legitimate  conclusion." — Alas,  then, 
for  the  freedom  of  England  herself,  as  late  as  the  year  1772, 
notwithstanding  the  boasts  of  the  Britons  of  that  day!  Clark- 
son  and  Granville  Sharp  have  kept  a  record  which,  upon  the 
principles  of  Mr.  Fearon  and  the  Quarterly  Review,  invali 
dates  all  their  pretensions.  Clarkson,  having  mentioned  the 
opinion  given  in  1729.  by  the  great  law  officers  of  the  crown 
— that  a  slave  coming  from  the  West  Indies  into  Great  Britain 
did  not  become  free,  and  that  the  master  might  legally  compel 
him  to  return  again  to  the  plantations, — makes  the  following 
statement: 

"  The  cruel  and  illegal  opinion  was  delivered  in  the  year 
1729.  The  planters,  merchants,  and  others,  gave  it  of  course 
all  the  publicity  in  their  power.  And  the  consequences  were 
as  might  easily  have  been  apprehended.  In  a  little  time  slaves 
absconding  were  advertised  in  the  London  papers  as  runaways, 
and  rewards  offered  for  the  apprehension  of  them,  in  the  same 
brutal  manner  as  we  find  them  advertised  in  the  land  of  sla 
very.  They  were  advertised  also,  in  the  same  papers,  to  be 
sold  by  auction,  sometimes  by  themselves,  and  at  others  with 
horses,  chaises,  and  harness.  They  were  seized  also  by  their 
masters,  or  by  persons  employed  by  them,  in  the  very  streets, 
and  dragged  from  thence  to  the  ships;  and  so  unprotected  now 
were  these  poor  slaves,  that  persons  in  no  wise  concerned  with 
them  began  to  institute  a  trade  in  their  persons,  making  agree 
ments  with  captains  of  ships  going  to  the  W7est  Indies  to  put 
them  on  board  at  a  certain  price." 

Granville  Sharp,  unmindful,  like  the  British  Reviewers, 
that  the  domestic  slavery  which  Britain  had  planted  in  our 
soil,  and  so  assiduously  cultivated,  could  not  be  exscinded, 
nor  divested  of  its  essential  properties,  also  suffered  him 
self  to  be  fired  by  some  New  York  advertisements.  When 
he  has  recited  them,  in  his  "Representation  of  the  Injus- 


420  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND 

P\RTT.  tice   of   Slavery,"*   he   proceeds,   however,   in  a   difierenr. 

"  But  hold!  perhaps  the  Americans  may  be  able,  with  too 
much  justice,  to  retort  this  severe  reflection,  and  may  refer  us 
to  newspapers  published  even  in  the  free  city  of  London, 
which  contain  advertisements,  not  less  dishonourable  than 
their  own.  See  <he  following  advertisement  in  the  Public 
Ledger  of  51st  December,  1761. 

"FOR  SALE, 

"  A  healthy  Negro  GIRL,  aged  about  1 5  years;  speaks  good 
English,  works  at  her  needle,  washes  well,  does  household 
work,  and  has  had  the  small  pox.  By  I.  W.  &c." 

Another  advertisement,  not  long  ago,  offered  a  reward  for 
stopping  a  female  slave  who  had  left  her  mistress  in  HattoL 
Garden.    And  in  the  Gazetteer  of  18th  April,  1769,  appear 
ed  a  very  extraordinary  advertisement,  with  the  following 
title. 

"  HORSES,  TIM  WHISKEY,  AND  BLACK  BOY. 

"  To  be  sold,  at  the  Bull  and  Gate  Inn,  Holborn,  a  very 
good  Tim  Whiskey,  little  the  worse  for  wear,  &c."  After 
wards,  "Achesnut  Gelding" — Then,  "A  very  good  grey 
Mare." — And  last  of  all,  (as  if  of  the  least  consequence)  "A 
well  made  good  tempered  Black  Boy;  he  has  lately  had  the 
small  pox,  and  will  be  sold  to  any  gentleman.  Enquire  as 
above." 

Another  advertisement  in  the  same  paper,  contains  a  very 
particular  description  of  a  negro  man,  called  Jeremiah  - 
and  concludes  as  follows: — "  Whoever  delivers  him  to  captain 
M — u — y,  on  board  the  Elizabeth,  at  Prince's  stairs,  Rother- 
hithe,  on  or  before  the  31st  instant,  shall  receive  thirty  guineas 
reward,  or  ten  guineas  for  such  intelligence  as  shall  enable 
the  captain  or  his  master,  effectually  to  secure  him." 

"  A  creole  Black  Boy  is  also  offered  to  sale  in  the  Daily 
Advertiser  of  the  same  date." 

"  Besides  these  instances,  the  Americans  may  perhaps 
taunt  us  with  the  shameful  treatment  of  a  poor  negro  servant 
who  not  long  ago  was  put  up  to  sale  by  public  auction,  toge 
ther  with  the  effects  of  his  bankrupt  master. — Also,  that  the 

*  London,  1769. 


SLAVE  TRADE.  421 

prisons  of  this  free  city  have  been  frequently  prostituted  of  SECT.  ix. 
Jate  by  the  tyrannical  and  dangerous  practice  of  confining  \~*~v~*^ 
negroes,  under  the  pretence  of  slavery,  though  there  has  been 
no  warrant  whatsoever  for  their  commitment." 

It  may  be  said  that  these  practices  were  arrested  in  Eng 
land.  They  were  indeed,  and  so  have  they  been  wherever 
this  could  be  done,  in  the  United  States.  But  they  were 
more  wanton  and  malignant  in  that  country,  since  they 
did  not  spring  out  of  a  general  and  long  established  system  of 
slavery;  and  they  show  how  the  people  of  England  would 
have  acted,  if  the  old  law  had  not  proved  to  be,  upon  labo 
rious  investigation,  peremptory  upon  the  subject.  The  Bri 
tish  merchant,  however,  continued  to  fit  out  his  ship  at  Liver 
pool,  or  London,  for  the  coast  of  Africa;  the  British  factory 
supplied  him  with  troops  of  kidnapped  negroes;  his  captain 
transported  them,  with  every  refinement  of  cruelty,  to  the 
British  West  Indies,  and  there  advertised  and  sold  them,  un 
der  the  sanction  of  the  British  government,  in  the  name  of  his 
owner,  a  great  stickler,  perhaps,  for  liberty  and  universal 
emancipation;  who  railed  each  day  against  American  incon 
sistency  and  barbarity  in  holding  and  advertising  slaves,  and 
repealed  complacently  the  well  known  verses  of  Cowper. 
"  slaves  cannot  breathe  in  England,"  £c. 

30.  We  do  not  deny,  in  America,  that  great  abuses  and  evils 
accompany  our  negro  slavery.  The  plurality  of  the  leading 
men  of  the  southern  states,  are  so  well  aware  of  its  pestilent 
genius,  that  they  would  be  glad  to  see  it  abolished,  if  this  were 
feasible  with  benefit  to  the  slaves,  and  without  inflicting  on 
the  country,  injury  of  such  magnitude,  as  no  community  has 
ever  voluntarily  incurred.  While  a  really  practicable  plan  of 
abolition  remains  undiscovered,  or  undetermined;  and  while 
the  general  conduct  of  the  Americans  is  such  only  as  neces 
sarily  results  from  their  situation,  they  are  not  to  be  arraigned 
for  this  institution.  If, — as  I  have  no  doubt  is  the  case, — it 
produces  here  much  less  misery  and  vice,  than  it  produces 
in  the  other  countries  which  are  cursed  with  it,  it  fur 
nishes  occasion  rather  for  praise  than  blame.  The  native 
Americans  claim  the  distinction  of  abusing  less  the  dangerous 
power  with  which  it  invests  the  slave  holder;  of  consulting 
more  the  comfort  and  general  welfare  of  its  victims;  than  the 
foreigners,  Britons  not  excepted,  who  so  readily  participate  in 
that  power  on  associating  themselves  to  this  nation.  We  are 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  AN1> 

T.  told  by  an  English  writer,  Ramsay,*  who  is  supported  in  tht 
asseriion  by  Edwards,  that,  with  respect  to  the  West  India  sla 
very,  "  adventurers  from  Europe  are  universally  more  cruel 
and  morose  towards  the  slaves  «han  the  Creoles  or  native  Wesl 
Indians."  The  analogy  is  perfect  in  our  case,  and  of  notoriety. 
It  is  a  matter  of  old  experience  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas: 
and  the  American  planter  appears  to  Hike  advantage  at  present 
in  Louisiana,  in  the  contrast,  on  this  head,  with  the  French  and 
Spanish,  who  have  pursued,  but  who  are  gradually  abandon 
ing  under  the  salutary  influence  of  our  political  and  social 
spirit,  an  hereditary  system  of  rigour. 

In  admitting  the  deformity  and  evil  of  our  negro  slavery, 
we  are  far  from  acknowledging,  that  any  nation  of  Europe  is 
entitled,  upon  a  general  comparison  between  our  situation  ae 
it  is  thus  unluckily  modified,  and  her  own,  with  all  appen 
dages  and  ingredients,  to  assign  to  herself  the  pre-eminence 
in  felicity,  virtue,  or  wisdom.  On  the  contrary,  we  know  of 
none  with  which  we  would  make  a  general  exchange  of"  in 
stitutions,"  and  are  assured  that  there  is  none,  whose  mode  oi 
being  on  the  whole,  is  not  much  more  unfavourable  than  ours, 
to  the  attainment  of  the  great  ends  of  society.  Who  can 
say  that  the  negro  slavery  of  these  states,  combined  even  with 
every  other  spring  of  ill,  existing  among  us,  occasions,  propor 
tionally,  as  much  of  suffering,  immorality  and  vileness,  as  the 
unequal  distribution  of  wealth  and  the  distinctions  of  rank,  the 
manufacturing  system,  the  penal  code,  the  taxes,  the  tythes, 
the  poor  rates,  the  impressment,  in  England ?  Are  there  not 
as  many  of  her  inhabitants,  as  the  whole  number  of  our  blacks, 
as  effectually  "disfranchised;"  as  entirely  uninstructed;  in 
the  last  stage  of  penury  and  distress;  whose  physical  con 
dition  universally,  is  hardly  better  than  that  of  the  most  lowly 
plantation  slave,  and  who  are  heart-struck  and  broken-spirit 
ed,  if  not  hardened  and  enraged? 

Let  us  examine  for  a  moment  how  the  case  stands  with  the 
people  of  England,  as  to  one  of  the  worst  of  the  effects,  with 
which  our,  and  all  other  domestic  slavery,  is  properly  re 
proached, — the  abasement  of  the  human  character.  Lord 
Sheffield  is  a  witness  who  will  never  be  suspected  of  a  dispo 
sition  to  disparage  his  country.  In  1818,  he  published  a 
pamphlet,  entitled  Observations  on  the  Poor  Laws;  which 
contains  the  following,  among  other  striking  representations: 

"There  is  much  truth  in  the  remark  that  a  small  additional 
increase  of  the  assessments  would,  in  many  instances,  render 

*  Essay  on  the  treatment  and  conversion  of  slaves,  &c. 


SLAVE  TRADE. 

the  land  productive  of  no  rent  at  all.     The  very  aggravated  SECT.  IX. 
situation  of  our  little  farmers  is  deplorable;  il  is  ruinous."        v^vx*/ 

"  In  many  parishes,  three-fourths,  sometimes  four-fifths  of 
the  parish,  actually  receive  relief:  the  greatest  part  of  the  po 
pulation  have  hecome  beggars,  and  often  insolently  insist  upon 
relief  depending  rather  upon  their  clamorous  demands  than  on 
their  industry,  foresight,  or  economy." 

"  The  prevailing  abuses  have  brought  the  country  to  such 
a  pass,  and  havt  so  demoralized  and  vitiated  a  great  propor 
tion  of  the  people,  that,  notwithstanding  the  ruinous  expense 
incurred  by  the  poor  rates,  the  misery  of  the  lower  ranks  is  so 
far  from  being  alleviated,  that  it  is  virtually  created  and  ex 
tended  by  it." 

In  the  House  of  Commons,  March  3d,  1818,  Mr.  Curwen 
said,  that  u  the  inadequacy  of  wages  and  the  practice  of  sup- 
plving  the  deficiency  of  them  from  the  parish  funds,  had  de 
stroyed  the  spirit  of  independence  among  the  poor."  In  the 
month  of  March  of  the  year  preceding,  Lord  Castlereagh  re 
marked  to  the  house,  that  "  it  must  be  aware  that  a  great 
proportion  of  the  wages  of  the  country  was  paid  out  of  the 
poor  rates."  On  the  19th  May,  1819*  Lord  J.  Russell  said, 
in  the  same  place,  "  he  must  refer  to  the  conduct  of  the  mi 
nistry  on  the  important  subject  of  the  poor  laws,  the  discus 
sion  of  which  subject  not  one  of  his  majesty's  ministers  had 
attended.  A  lamented  friend  of  his,  whose  loss  was  felt  every 
day  more  and  more — he  meant  Mr.  Horner — had  observed 
that  by  the  present  poor  laws,  the  people  were  returning  fast 
to  a  state  of  villeinage.  The  observation  was  true;  they  were 
returning  to  a  state  of  villeinage,  and  to  a  state  of  villeinage 
that  was  incalculably  more  dangerous  than  that  which  existed 
six  centuries  ago  in  an  age  of  darkness  and  superstition. 
Sorry  was  he  to  say  that  the  once  manly  peasantry  of  this 
country,  were  now  becoming  lazy  and  riotous,  and  disrespect 
ful  to  their  superiors,  and  that  they  were  beginning  to  look 
up  to  the  laws  with  no  other  view  than  that  of  obtaining  by 
them  a  temporary  subsistence." 

We  have  the  curious  confession  of  Lord  Sidmouth,  made 
in  the  House  of  Peers,  on  the  3d  June,  1818,  that  "  it  was 
notorious  the  dread  of  transportation  had  almost  subsided, 
and  perhaps  had  been  succeeded  by  the  desire  to  emigrate  to 
New  South  Wales."  This  desire,  which  indicates  so  clearly 
the  state  of  things  at  home,  would  not  appear,  however,  to 
have  been  always  indulged.  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Fry,  in  her 
evidence  before  the  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  on 
the  state  of  the  prisons,  mentioned  that  "  several  persons. 


424  NEGRO  SLAVERY  AND  SLAVE  TRADE. 

PART  I.  husbands  in  anxiety  to  follow  their  wives,  and  vice  versa,  were 
^-^v-^'  induced  to  commit  crimes.  She  instanced  one  woman  who 
lately  suffered  death,  viz.  Charlotte  Newman,  actuated  by  <. 
desire  to  follow  her  husband  to  Botany  Bay,  who  had  com 
mitted  the  same  offence;  but  it  was  thought  proper  to  make 
an  example  of  her,  and  she  was  executed!" 

I  could  produce  lamentations  without  end,  uttered  in  Par 
liament  and  in  the  British  pamphlets  on  domestic  affairs,  re 
specting  this  prostration  of  character  among  the  body  of  the 
English  people.  It  is  one  view  of  the  state  of  society  in  Greal 
Britain,  which  excites  grief  and  commisseration;  but  then 
are  numberless  others  which  fill  the  mind  with  horror,  and 
bring  unequalled  disgrace  upon  human  nature.  The  extent 
and  variety  of  the  disorder,  corruption,  oppression,  and  bar 
barity;  in  short,  of  every  species  of  guilt,  misery,  and  degra 
dation,  which  we  find  unveiled  in  the  late  Parliamentary  Re 
ports  concerning  the  poor  laws;  the  state  of  ihe  prisons;  the 
lunatic  asylums,  and  work  houses;  the  charitable  trusts;  the 
mendicity  and  vagrancy,  particularly  of  London;  the  igno 
rance  of  the  lower  orders;  the  administration  of  the  penal  code, 
— could  not  be  believed,  if  they  were  not  so  authenticated: 
and  can  as  yet  scarcely  be  conceived  to  exist  in  a  community 
professing  to  be  well  governed,  and  styling  itself  the  "best 
and  most  enlightened"  in  the  world.*  America  will  be  con 
tent  to  admit  all  that  the  British  travellers  have  written  of  her 
negro  slavery;  to  u  hold  each  strange  tale  devoutly  true;"  and 
then  to  stand  the  comparison  with  Gr^at  Britain,  provided  the 
disclosures  of  these  Reports,  the  practice  of  impressment,  the 
system  of  discipline  in  the  army  and  navy,  the  proceedings 
during  the  suspension  of  the  habeas  corpus  act,  the  excise,  and 
the  hulksi  be  kept  in  view  by  the  umpire. 

*  See  Note  Z. 


NOTES 


(NOTE  A.  p.  35.) 

TIIE  character  of  the  American  Indians  is  too  apt  to  be  underrated  PART  1 
by  the  historians,  and  the  proper  degree  of  credit  to  be,  therefore, 
withheld  from  the  European  settlers  in  North  America,  as  regards  the 
issue  of  the  struggle.     I  select  from  writers,  who  may  be  considered  as 
of  the  highest  authority,  some  general  views  of  Indian  hostilities. 

"  The  Indians,"  says  Ramsay,  in  his  History  of  South  Carolina,  "  in 
their  military  capacity,  were  not  so  inferior  to  the  whites  as  some  may 
imagine.  The  superiority  of  muskets  over  bows  and  arrows,  managed 
by  Indians,  in  a  woody  country,  is  not  great.  The  savage,  quick-sighted 
and  accustomed  to  perpetual  watchfulness,  springs  from  his  hiding 
place,  behind  a  bush,  and  surprises  his  enemy  with  the  pointed  arrow- 
before  he  is  aware  of  danger.  He  ranges  through  the  trackless  forest 
like  the  beasts  of  prey,  and  safely  sleeps  under  the  same  canopy  with 
the  wolf  and  bear.  His  vengeance  is  concealed,  till  he  sends  the  tidings 
in  the  fatal  blow." 

"  The  Indians  go  to  war,"  says  Franklin,  in  his  Canada  Pamphlet, 
"  as  they  call  it,  in  small  parties,  from  fifty  men  down  to  five.  Their 
hunting  life  has  made  them  acquainted  with  the  whole  country,  and 
scarce  any  part  of  it  is  impracticable  to  such  a  party.  They  can  travel 
through  the  woods  even  by  night,  and  know  how  to  conceal  their 
tracks.  They  pass  easily  between  your  forts  undiscovered  ;  and  pri 
vately  approach  the  settlements  of  your  frontier  inhabitants.  They 
need  no  convoys  of  provisions  to  follow  them  ;  for  whether  they  are 
shifting  from  place  to  place  in  the  woods,  or  lying  in  wait  for  an  oppor 
tunity  to  strike  a  blow,  every  thicket  and  stream  furnishes  so  small  a 
number  with  sufficient  subsistence.  When  they  have  surprised  sepa 
rately,  and  murdered  and  scalped  a  dozen  families,  they  are  gone  with 
inconceivable  expedition  through  unknown  ways:  and  it  is  very  rare 
that  pursuers  have  any  chance  of  coming  up  with  them." 

Po-wnaWs  Administration  of  tlie  Colonies. 

"  Our  American  frontiers,"  says  governor  Pownall,  in  his  Adminis 
tration  of  the  Colonies,  "  from  the  nature  of  advancing  settlements, 
dispersed  ajong  the  branches  of  the  upper  parts  of  our  rivers,  and 
scattered  in  the  disunited  vallies,  amidst  the  mountains,  must  be  always 
unguarded,  and  defenceless  against  the  incursions  of  Indians.  And 
were  we  able,  under  an  Indian  war,  to  advance  our  settlements  yet  far 
ther,  they  would  be  advanced  up  to  the  very  dens  of  those  savages.  A 
settler,  wholly  intent  on  labouring  on  the  soil,  cannot  stand  to  his  arms. 

VOL.  I.-3  H 


NOTES, 

PART  I.  nor  defend  himself  against,  nor  seek  his  enemy.  Environed  with  wooes 
\^-v^^  an(l  swamps,  he  knows  nothing  of  the  country  beyond  his  farm.  Th? 
Indian  knows  every  spot  for  ambush  or  defence.  The  farmer,  drive"! 
from  his  little  cultured  lot  into  the  woods,  is  lost:  the  Indian  in  the  wooc  ? 
is  every  where  at  home  ;  every  bush,  every  thicket,  is  a  camp  to  thf 
Indian,  from  whence,  at  the  very  moment  when  he  is  sure  of  his  blov  , 
he  can  rush  upon  his  prey.  The  farmer's  cow  or  his  horse,  cannot  go 
into  the  woods,  where  alone  they  must  subsist :  his  wife  arid  childrer , 
if  they  shut  themselves  up  in  their  poor  wretched  log-house,  will  be 
burned  in  it :  and  the  husbandman  in  the  field  will  be  shot  down  while 
his  hands  hold  the  plough.  An  European  settler  can  make  but  mo- 
mentarv  efforts  of  war,  in  hopes  to  gain  some  point,  that  he  may  by  t 
obtain  a  series  of  security,  under  which  to  work  his  lands  in  peace 
The  Indian's  whole  life  is  a  warfare,  and  his  operations  never  discoi,- 
tinued.  In  short,  our  frontier  settlements  must  ever  lie  at  the  mercy  of 
the  savages  :  and  a  settler  is  the  natural  prey  to  an  Indian,  whose  sole 
occupation  is  war  and  hunting.  To  countries,  circumstanced  as  ovr 
colonies  are,  an  Indian  is  the  most  dreadful  of  enemies.  For,  in  a  WIT 
with  Indians,  no  force  whatever  can  defend  our  frontiers  from  being  a 
constant  wretched  scene  of  conflagrations,  and  of  the  most  shocking 
murders.  Whereas,  on  the  contrary,  our  temporary  expeditions  again  it 
these  Indians,  even  if  successful,  can  do  these  wanderers  little  harn 
Every  article  of  their  property  is  portable,"  &c. 

"  The  Indians,"  says  Loskiel,  in  his  History  of  the  Indian  Missions 
"need  not  much  provocation  to  begin  a  war  with  the  white  people  ;  a 
trifling  occurrence  may  easily  furnish  a  pretence  They  frequent;', 
first  deiermine  upon  war,  and  then  wait  a  convenient  opportunity,  to 
find  reasons  for  it :  nor  are  they  much  at  a  loss  to  find  them. 

"  It  has  occasioned  much  surprise,  that,  notwithstanding  the  prevailing 
fear  of  the  Six  Nations,  lest  the  Europeans  should  become  too  powerful, 
they  have  sold  them  one  tract  of  land  after  the  other.  Some  thought  a 
was*  done  merely  for  the  sake  of  the  presents  offered  by  the  purchas 
ers.  But  experience  has  shewn,  that  this  settling  of  land  proved  the- 
best  pretence  for  a  war.  For  when  the  white  people  had  settled  upon 
the  purchased  territory,  they  drove  them  away  again.  They  have  fre 
quently  continued  their  hostilities  against  the  white  people,  even  during 
the  settling  of  the  peace,  or  renewed  them  soon  after.  In  such  a  cr. 
tical  juncture,  the  Europeans  cannot  sufficiently  guard  against  the  In 
dians,  especially  against  the  Iroquois.  They  will  treat  a  white  person. 
who  is  ignorant  of  their  evil  designs,  with  all  apparent  civility,  and  giv : 
him  victuals  and  drink,  but  before  he  is  aware,  cleave  his  skull  with  ?.- 
hatchet." 


(NOTE  B.    p.  42.) 

THE  first  constitution  of  South  Carolina  was  framed  by  Locke.  M 
Verplank,  in  the  beautiful  Anniversary  Discourse,  from  which  I  have 
made  a  long  extract  in  the  text,  celebrates  him  among  "the  illustrious 
dead,  the  rich  fruits  of  whose  labours  we  are  now  enjoying;"  as  one 
of  the  "original  legislators  of  the  country,  who  gave  to  our  political 
character  its  first  impulse  and  direction."  It  appears1!©  me,  that  the 
great  philosopher  is  not  entitled  to  these  distinctions,  as  far,  at  least,  as 
his  fundamental  constitutions  for  Carolina  are  concerned.  M.  Verplank, 
in  claiming  for  them  "  many  excellent  provisions,"  acknowledges  that 
they  were  "  in  all  respects,  unnecessarily  complicated  and  artificial.1' 
I  see  but  two  provisions  in  them  worthy  of  particular  approbation — to 


421 

wit,  the  biennial  parliament,  and  the  perfect  freedom  in  religion.  On  PART  I. 
the  whole,  it  is  wonderful  how  Locke,  so  practical  and  sober  in  his  v^-v^^ 
speculations  generally,  could  have  fallen  upon  a  scheme  of  govern 
ment  so  fanciful,  and  indeed  so  preposterous,  when  viewed  in  refer 
ence  to  the  character  and  situation  of  the  colonists  for  whom  it  was 
intended.  "  Nothing,"  says  Chalmers,  "  can  show  more  clearly  the 
fallibility  of  the  human  understanding  than  the  singular  fate  of  these 
constitutions.  Discovered  instantly  to  be  wholly  inapplicable  to  the 
circumstances  of  an  inconsiderable  colony,  and  in  a  variety  of  cases,  to 
be  altogether  impracticable,  they  were  immediately  changed.  The 
identity  of  them  was  debated  by  those  to  whom  they  were  offered  as  a 
vule  of  conduct,  because  they  had  not  been  consulted  in  the  formation 
of  them.  They  gave  rise  to  the  greatest  dissentions,  which  long  dis 
tracted  the  province,  and  engendered  civil  discord.  And,  after  a 
little  period  of  years,  the  whole,  found  inconvenient  and  even  danger 
ous,  were  laid  aside,  and  a  much  simpler  form  established."* 

'*  Locke,"  adds  this  author,  "  was,  in  the  year  1670,  created  a  land 
grave,  as  a  reward  for  his  services  ;  and,  like  the  other  Carolinian  no 
bles  created  under  this  constitution,  would  have  been  consigned  to 
oblivion,  but  for  those  writings  that  have  enlightened  the  world,  while 
they  have  immortalized  himself."  Those  admirable  writings  had,  un 
doubtedly,  a  sensible  influence  over  the  minds  of  the  American  legis 
lators  of  a  subsequent  period.  Their  impress  is  distinguishable  in  our 
present  federal  constitution  particularly.  His  fundamental  principles 
were,  however,  embodied  in  political  statutes,  and  put  into  steady 
action,  in  the  midst  of  the  North  American  wilderness,  even  before 
the  era  of  his  birth.  If  we  compare  his  constitutions  for  Carolina 
with  those  which  the  New  England  settlers  framed  for  themselves, 
we  will  not  have  so  much  to  complain  of  "  the  fallibility  of  the 
human  understanding,"  as  to  mock  at  the  pride  of  philosophy,  and 
to  question  the  competency  of  the  highest  talents  in  speculation,  to  the 
business  of  devising  the  true  rule  of  action  for  communities  of  men. 
The  French  philosophers  succeeded  for  their  country,  no  better  than 
Locke  for  Carolina :  Jeremy  Bentham's  "  Codification"  is  a  master- 
piece  of  absurdity,  &c. 


(NOTE  C.    p.  48.) 

THE  body  of  Roman  Catholic  gentlemen,  who  settled  Maryland 
in  1633,  appear  to  me  to  be  clearly  entitled  to  the  merit  of  priority  in 
the  establishment  of  religious  freedom  for  all  Christian  sects.  Lord 
Baltimore,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  text,  by  his  original  plan  of  polity, 
established  Christianity  agreeably  to  the  old  common  law,  with  the  ex 
press  denial  of  pre-eminence  to  any  sect.  His  associates  recognized 
this  principle,  and  acted  upon  it  from  the  outset.  The  first  assemblies 
of  the  freemen  of  the  province,  held  in  1634-5-7-8-9,  all  admitted  it  as 
fundamental.  That  of  1649,  promulged  a  statute  concerning  religious 
equality  and  freedom,  which  is  not  only  prior  in  date,  as  a  charter  for 
all  Christian  sects,  to  any  other  legislative  act  of  the  kind,  of  which  this 
country  can  boast,  but  provides  more  minutely  and  anxiously  than  any 
ether  extant,  for  the  protection  of  the  rights  of  conscience,  and  the 
preservation  of  religious  harmony.  I  know  of  no  law  on  the  subject 

*  Annals,  p,  528, 


425  NOTES, 

PART  I.  bespeaking  so  tolerant  a  spirit  as  to  the  divisions  of  Christianity  ;  so 
,  ^_  t  prudent  and  sound  a  judgment,  and  so  generous  a  solicitude.     It  is  to 

be  noted,  that  among  the  early  settlers,  were  several  priests.  The  num 
ber  of  these  had  increased  at  the  date  of  the  act,  and  their  concur 
rence  in  its  regulations,  is  ascertained  from  unquestionable  evidence. 
The  toleration  of  the  Church  of  England  might  have  been  unavoidable 
for  the  founders  of  Maryland,  and  at  all  events,  tended  obviously  to 
keep  them  well  with  the  English  government.  But  no  motive  of  thi  i 
nature  existed  with  respect  to  the  sectaries,  whose  familiar  appella 
tions  they  enumerated,  as  far  as  it  was  practicable,  in  the  law,  in  order  to 
their  greater  security  even  from  insult.  The  favour  of  the  English  go 
vernment  was,  on  the  contrary,  to  be  gained  by  the  persecution  of  tho 
Quakers  and  Puritans. 

Roger  Williams  began  his  plantation  in  Providence  in  1636.  Rhode 
Island  was  settled  in  1638.  In  these  settlements,  a  system  of  universal 
toleration  would  seem  to  have  been  pursued  from  the  beginning. 

But  there  is  no  specific  law  on  the  subject  of  religious  freedom  in  th-> 
first  code  of  Rhode  Island,  of  1647,  although  the  concluding  paragraph 
of  that  code  implies  universal  toleration.  It  is  said  in  the  Political  Annah 
of  Chalmers,*  that  among  the  ordinances  of  the  Rhode  Island  assembly 
of  1663,  there  is  one  which  enacts,  that  "  all  men  professing  Christianity , 
and  of  competent  estates  and  civil  conversation,  Roman  Catholics  out '  / 
excepted,  shall  be  admitted  freemen,  or  may  choose  or  be  chosen  cole  • 
nial  officers."  Holmes  has  repeated  this  statement  in  his  very  useful 
Annals;  and  its  correctness  does  not  appear  to  have  been  questioned  b/ 
any  of  our  historians.  This  disfranchisement  of  Roman  Catholics  wa» 
so  little  iu  unison,  however,  with  the  doctrines  previously  asserted  ami 
acted  upon  by  Rhode  Island  and  her  illustrious  founder,  Roger  Williams, 
that  it  was  natural  to  doubt  of  the  existence  of  the  alledged  exception 
The  attention  of  the  public  having  been  drawn  to  the  subject,  last  win 
ter,  by  Mr.  Verplank's  Discourse,  James  Burrill,  jun.  Esq.,  the  distin 
guished  senator  from  Rhode  Island,  in  the  federal  congivss,  zealous  for 
the  honour  and  credit  of  Roger  Williams,  as  the  earliest  apostle  of 
unlimited  toleration,  solicited  Mr.  Samuel  Eddy,  the  secretary  of 
elate  of  Rhode  Island,  to  make  research  into  her  records,  with  a  view 
to  the  solution  of  the  difficulty.  Mr.  Eddy  had  occupied  the  station 
of  secretary  from  October  1797,  until  May  1819,  and  acquired  a  tho- 
rough  acquaintance  with  the  archives  and  antiquities  of  Rhode  Island. 
He  is,  besides,  a  gentleman  of  a  discriminating  mind  and  scrupulous 
veracity,  who  must  inspire  the  fullest  confidence  in  every  point  of 
view. 

Mr.  Burrill  has  had  the  goodness  to  communicate  to  me  the  answer  of 
Mr.  Eddy,  containing  the  results  of  a  diligent  investigation.  I  am  induced 
to  make  it  part  of  this  note,  notwithstanding  its  length,  being  assured 
that  it  will  be  considered  as  interesting  and  valuable,  by  all  who  are 
curious  or  concerned  about  American  history.  It  affords  a  fine  lesson 
of  state  liberality,  and  establishes  the  singular  facts — that  the  restriction 
in  the  law,  to  those  only  who  professed  Christianity,  and  the  exception 
of  Roman  Catholics,  were  introduced  after  the  year  1688,  by  some 
committee  who  prepared  a  new  digest  of  the  laws;  that  if  the  restric 
tion,  with  the  exception,  was  ever  approved  of  by  the  Rhode  Island 
Assembly,  this  approbation  must  have  been  given  after  1688  ;  and  that 
the  object  of  its  introduction  and  continuation  was  solely  to  win  favour 
in  England  in  the  reigns  of  William  and  Anne.  The  bigotry  of  the 
mother  country  is  set  in  a  striking  light,  by  the  necessity  of  such  ? 
feint  for  the  acquisition  of  her  good  will. 


NOTE3, 

P  \RT  I 

Statement  of  Mr.  Eddy. 

The  first  settlers  in  Providence,  (1636)  and  in  the  island  of  Rhode  ' 
Inland  (1638)  were  governed  by  voluntary  associations  until  1647.  Re 
ligious  liberty  was  fully  enjoyed  in  these  associations.  In  March  16-1-3-4, 
a  charter  was  obtained  by  Roger  Williams  from  "  the  Governor  in 
Chief,  Lord  Admiral,  and  Commissioners  for  foreign  plantations,"  au 
thorising  the  inhabitants  to  adopt  "  such  a  form  of  civil  government  ;,- 
by  voluntary  consent  of  all  or  the  greater  part  of  them,  they  should 
find  most  suitable  to  their  estate  and  condition,"  "  and  to  make  and  or 
dain  such  civil  laws,"  &c.  "  as  they  or  the  greater  part  of  them  should 
by  free  consent  agree  unto,"  "  to  be  conformable  to  the  laws  of  Eng 
land  so  far  as  the  nature  and  constitution  of  the  place  would  admit." 

Pursuant  to  this  charter,  in  May  1647,  a  form  of  government  and  a 
body  of  laws  were  agreed  to.  The  laws  are  thus  introduced  : 

"  And  now  to  the  end  that  we  may  give  each  to  the  other  (notwith 
standing  our  different  consciences,  touching  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus, 
whereof  upon  the  point  we  all  make  mention,)  as  good  and  hopeful  as 
surance  as  we  are  able,  touching  each  man's  peaceable  and  quiet  en- 
joyment  of  his  lawful  right  and  liberty,  We  do  agree  unto,  and  by 
the  authority  abovesaid  enact,  establish,  and  confirm  these  orders  fol 
lowing." 

Among  others,  "That  no  person  in  this  colony  shall  be  taken  or  im 
prisoned,  or  be  disseised  of  his  lands  or  liberties,  or  be  exiled  or  any 
otherwise  molested  or  destroyed,  but  by  the  lawful  judgment  of  hi* 
peers,  or  by  some  known  law,  and  according  to  the  letter  of  iV,  ratified 
and'confirmed  by  the  major  part  of  the  General  Assembly,  lawfully  met, 
and  orderly  managed." 

"  For  as  much  as  the  consciences  of  sundry  men  truly  conscionable, 
may  scruple  the  giving  or  taking  of  an  oath,  and  it  would  be  no  ways 
suitable  to  the  nature  and  constitution  of  our  place,  (who  profess 
ourselves  to  be  men  of  different  consciences,  and  not  one  willing  to 
force  another,)  to  debar  such  as  cannot  so  do,  either  from  bearing  office 
among  us,  or  from  giving  in  testimony  in  a  case  depending.  Be  it 
enacted,"  Sec.  "  that  a  solemn  profession  be  accounted  of  as  full  force 
as  an  oath."  &c.  This  body  of  laws  is  concluded  by  these  memorable 
words,  "  These  are  the  lawrs  that  concern  all  men,  and  these  are  the 
penalties  for  the  transgressions  thereof,  which,  by  common  consent,  are 
ratified  and  established  throughout  the  whole  colony.  And  otherwise 
than  thus,  what  is  herein  forbidden,  all  men  may  walk  as  their  con 
sciences  persuade  them,  every  one  in  the  name  of  his  God.  And  let 
the  lambs  of  the  Most  High  walk  in  this  colony  without  molestation,  in 
the  name  of  Jehovah  their  God,  for  ever  and  ever." 

These  are  all  the  laws  relating  to  this  subject  under  the  charter  of 
1643-4.  The  second  charter  bears  date  July  8,  1663,  was  brought  over 
(by  Capt.  George  Baxter,)  and  presented  to  the  Court  of  Commission 
ers  November  24,  1663,  and  the  next  day  to  "  a  very  great  meeting 
and  assembly  of  the  freemen  of  the  colony."  The  day  following,  the 
Court  of  Commissioners  resigned  their  authority,  and  declared  them 
selves  dissolved. 

The  preamble  to  this  charter  recites,  "  that  whereas  in  their  hum 
ble  address,  they  have  freely  declared,  that  it  is  much  in  their  hearts  (if 
they  may  be  permitted)  to  hold  forth  a  lively  experiment,  that  a  most 
flourishing  civil  state,  may  stand,  and  best  be  maintained,  and  that  among 
our  English  subjects,  with  a  full  liberty  in  religious  concernments,"  and 
then  declares,  "  That  no  person  within  the  said  colony  at  any  time 
hereafter  shall  be  any  wise  molested,  punished,  disquieted,  or  called  in 
question,  for  any  differences  in  opinion  in  matters  of  religion,  who  do 


430  NOTES. 

PART  I.  not  actually  disturb  the  civil  peace  of  our  said  colony,  but  that  all  anc 
s_^-V"^/  every  person  and  persons  may  from  time  to  time,  and  at  all  times  here 
after  freely  and  fully  have  and  enjoy  his  and  their  own  judgments  am 
consciences  in  matters  of  religious  concernments,  they  behaving  them 
selves  peaceably  and  quietly,  and  not  using  this  liberty  to  licentiousness, 
and  profaneness,  nor  to  the  civil  injury  or  outward  disturbance  o 
others." 

The  first  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  under  this  charter,  wa^ 
March  1, 1663-4,  when  the  government  was  organized.  They  repealec 
certain  laws,  which  were  "  contradictory  to  the  form  of  the  present 
government,"  and  "  ordered  and  enacted  that  all  other  laws  be  of 
force,  until  some  other  course  be  taken  by  a  General  Assembly  foi 
better  provision  therein." 

The  proceedings  of  this  session  are  all  entire,  and  there  is  not  a  -wora 
on  record,  of  the  act  referred  to  by  Chalmers,  Political  Annals,  c.  xi 
and  contained  in  the  revision  of  1745,  purporting  to  have  been  passed 
the  session  of  1663-4. 

Nor  is  there  any  thing  on  record,  at  either  of  the  sessions  this  year 
which  has  any  relation  to  the  subject,  unless  the  following  may  be  sc 
considered.  At  May  session,  the  inhabitants  of  Block  Island,  being 
incorporated  into  a  town,  the  recorder  (secretary)  was  desired  to  fur 
nish  them  with  "  a  transcript  of  the  body  of  laws,"  (enacted  under 
the  first  charter)  and  "  at  present,"  to  communicate  to  them  the  fol 
lowing  words  of  the  charter,  to  wit,  "  That  no  person  within  the  said 
colony  at  any  time  hereafter,  shall  be  any  wise  molested,  punished,  dis 
quieted,  or  called  in  question  for  any  difference  of  opinion  in  matters  ol 
religion,  who  do  not  actually  disturb  the  civil  peace  of  the  said  colony." 
At  the  same  time,  John  Sands  and  Joseph  Kent,  freemen  of  Block 
Island,  presented  a  petition  in  behalf  of  a  number  of  the  inhabitants  oi 
that  island,  praying  that  the  latter  might  be  admitted  freemen  of  the 
colony,  "  and  being  demanded,  if  they  did  know,  that  all  the  aforesaid 
persons  were  men  of  peaceable  and  good  behaviour,  and  likely  to  prove 
worthy  and  helpful  members  in  the  colony,  they  answered  yea." 
Wherepon  they  were  admitted.  No  where  have  I  discovered  any  en 
quiry  respecting  religion,  on  the  admission  of  freemen. 

At  the  session,  in  May,  1665,  three  of  the  king's  commissioners,  Carr, 
Cartwright,  and  Maverick,  presented  to  the  General  Assembly  five 
propositions  or  proposals  as  they  are  called  in  the  records  ;  the  first  and 
second  of  which  are  in  these  words, — 1st.  "  That  all  householders  inha 
biting  this  colony,  take  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  that  the  administra 
tion  of  justice  be  in  his  majesty's  name  "  2d.  "  That  all  men  of  com 
petent  estates,  and  civil  conversation,  who  acknowledge,  and  are  obedi 
ent  to  the  civil  magistrate,  though  of  different  judgments,  may  be  ad 
mitted  freemen,  and  have  liberty  to  choose  and  to  be  chosen  officers 
both  civil  and  military." 

In  answer  to  the  first,  after  saying  much  about  liberty  of  conscience 
in  relation  to  oaths,  &c.  (See  Hist.  Collections  Massachusetts,  vol.  7. 
2d  series,  p.  95  )  they  enacted,  that  an  "  engagement  of  allegiance" 
should  be  given  (the  form  of  which  is  prescribed)  "  by  all  men  capable, 
within  their  jurisdiction." 

In  answer  to  the  second,  they  enacted,  "That  so  many  of  them  that 
take  the  aforesaid  engagements,  and  are  of  competent  estates,  civil 
conversation,  and  obedient  to  the  civil  magistrate,  shall  be  admitted 
freemen  of  this  colony,  upon  their  express  desire  therein  declared  to 
the  General  Assembly,  either  by  themselves,  with  sufficient  testimony 
of  their  fitness  and  qualifications,  as  shall  by  the  Assembly  be  deemed 
satisfactory,  or  if  by  the  chief  officers  of  the  town  or  towns  where  they 
live,  they  be  proposed  and  declared  as  abovesaid,  and  that  none  shall 
have  admission  to  vote  for  public  officers  or  deputies,  or  enjoy  any  pri- 


NOTES. 


431 


vilege  of  freemen,  till  admitted  by  the  Assembly  as  aforesaid,  and  their  PART  I. 
names  recorded  in  the  general  records  of  the  colony."  v^x^v^x*' 

To  the  third  proposal  (See  Hist.  Coll.  Mass.  p.  99.)  they  say,  "  This 
Assembly  do  -with  all  gladness  of  heart  and  humbleness  of  mind,  ac 
knowledge  the  great  goodness  of  God,  and  favour  of  his  Majesty  in 
that  respect,  declaring,  that  as  it  hath  been  a  principle  held  forth  and 
maintained  in  this  colony  from  the  very  beginning'  thereof,  so  it  is  much  in 
their  hearts  to  procure  the  same  liberty  to  all  persons  within  this  colony 
forever,  as  to  the  worship  of  God  therein,  taking  care  for  the  preserva 
tion  of  civil  government,  to  the  doing  of  justice,  and  preserving  each 
other's  privileges  from  wrong  and  violence  of  others." 

Among  other  reasons  assigned  in  a  law  allowing  compensation  to  the 
members  of  Assembly,  to  enable  them  the  better  to  discharge  their 
duties,  passed  September,  1666,  is  this,  "  So  as  in  some  good  measure 
to  answer  one  main  ground  of  his  Majesty's  grant,  which  was  to  hold 
forth  a  lively  experiment,  that  a  most  flourishing  civil  state  may  stand 
and  best  be  maintained,  and  that  among  his  English  subjects,  with  a 
full  liberty  in  religious  concernments." 

A  militia  law,  passed  May,  1677,  is  concluded  with  the  words,  "  Pro 
vided  always,  that  this  Assembly  do  hereby  declare,  that  it  is  their  full 
and  unanimous  resolution,  to  maintain  a  full  liberty  in  religious  concern 
ments,  relating  to  the  worship  of  God,  and  that  no  person  inhabiting 
within  this  jurisdiction  shall  be  in  any  wise  molested,  punished,  dis 
quieted  or  called  in  question  for  any  difference  in  opinion  in  matters 
of  religion,  who  do  not  actually  disturb  the  civil  peace  of  this  colony." 
I  have  formerly  examined  the  records  of  the  state,  from  its  first  set 
tlement,  with  a  view  to  historical  information,  and  lately,  from  1663  to 
1719,  with  a  particular  view  to  this  law,  excluding  Roman  Catholics 
from  the  privileges  of  freemen,  and  can  find  nothing  that  has  anv  re 
ference  to  it,  nor  any  thing  that  gives  any  preference  or  privileges  to 
men  of  one  set  of  religious  opinions  over  those  of  another,  until  the 
revision  of  1745. 

It  remains  now  to  account  for  the  law  quoted  by  Chalmers,  as  con 
tained  in  this  revision  of  1745.  To  do  this,  it  may  be  proper  to  state, 
that  the  general  practice  was,  and  which  continued  under  different  re 
gulations  till  1798,  (the  date  of  the  last  revision,)  either  for  the  secre 
tary  or  others  united  with  him,  to  draw  up  in  form  the  laws  and  pro 
ceedings  at  the  close  of  each  session,  and  for  the  secretary  to  record 
the  same,  and  until  1747,  to  send  copies  in  manuscript  under  the  seal  of 
the  colony,  to  the  several  towns.  The  first  order  for  printing  the  pro 
ceedings  of  the  General  Assembly,  was  in  October,  1747.  The  first 
edition  of  the  Laivs  was  printed  in  1719.*  This  was  attended  with  so 
many  errors,  that  a  committee  was  appointed  to  correct  them,  in  a  sup 
plement  that  was  to  be  printed  and  annexed  to  the  edition.  The  second 
was  printed  in  1730,  by  whom,  or  at  what  place  I  have  not  learnt 
Neither  of  these  editions  is  in  the  secretary's  office,  nor  have  I  been 
able  to  find  them.  The  third  was  printed  in  Newport,  in  1745,  and 
from  which  I  imagine  Chalmers  quoted. 

The  laws  have  been  uniformly  revised  by  committees.  Their  prac- 
tice  has  been  to  embody  in  one  all  the  different  laws  on  the  same  sub- 
ject  previously  passed,  with  such  additions  and  amendments  as  they 
thought  proper,  confirmed  however,  before  publication,  by  the  General 
Assembly.  The  two  last  revisions  (1767  and  1798,)  give  no  date  to  the 
several  laws,  other  than  by  figures  in  the  margin,  generally  opposite  the 
title  or  first  section  of  the  law,  referring  to  the  years  when  the  different 
laws  embodied  in  one  are  supposed  to  have  been  passed.  These  refer 
ences  are  inaccurate  and  deficient. 

*  Bv  Nicholas  Boone  in  Boston. 


432  NOTES. 

PART  I.  *n  l'ie  revision  of  1745,*  the  -whole  of  every  law  purports  to  liavo 
\^*v~^t  been  passed  at  a  particular  session,  though  composed  of  a  number  oi 
acts  passed  in  different  and  subsequent  years,  and  which,  in  many  in 
stances  are  referred  to  in  the  margin.  None  of  them  are  dated  before 
March,  1663  4,  the  time  of  the  first  meeting  under  the  second  charter, 
and  of  those  which  bear  this  date  not  one  section  of  any  one  of  them  ivat 
passed  at  this  session.  The  following  act,  bearing  this  date,  is  traced 
from  its  origin,  as  a  specimen  of  the  inaccuracy  of  the  dates  in  this 
revision  of  1745.  "Be  it  enacted,"  &c.  "That  there  be  one  seal 
made  for  the  public  use  of  the  colony,  and  that  the  form  of  an  anchor 
be  engraven  thereon,  and  the  motto  thereof  shall  be  the  word  Hope." 
In  the  laws  of  1647,  "  It  is  ordered  that  the  seal  of  the  Province  shall 
be  an  anchor."  There  is  nothing  more  on  this  subject  till  March, 
1663-4,  when  "  ordered  that  for  the  present,  the  old  seal  that  hath 
been  the  seal  of  the  colony,  shall  be  the  present  seal,"  until  a  new  one 
be  procured.  May  1664,  "  ordered,  that  the  seal  with  the  motto 
llhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations,  with  the  word  Hope,  ovet 
the  head  of  the  anchor,  is  the  present  seal  of  the  colony."  This  con 
tinued  to  be  the  seal  till  1686,  when  on  the  surrender  of  the  charter,  it 
was  broken  by  Sir  Edmund  Anclros,  and  in  February,  1689,  the  chartei 
having  been  resumed,  it  was  "  ordered  that  the  seal  brought  in  by  Mr, 
Arnold  Collins,  being  the  anchor,  with  the  motto  Hope,  is  appointed  to 
be  the  seal  of  the  colony,  he  having  been  employed  by  this  Assembly  to 
make  it."  This  is  now  in  the  secretary's  office,  and  has  ever  since  beer 
the  seal  of  the  colony  and  state,  is  the  onlv  one  of  this  description  the 
colony  ever  had,  and  is  the  same  pointed  out  in  the  before  mentioned 
act  (revision  of  1745)  purporting  to  have  been  passed  in  1663-4. 

The  intention  in  this  revision  appears  to  have  been  either  to  date  the 
laws  at  or  after  the  time  when  the  operations  of  government  com 
menced  under  the  second  charter,  as  having  derived  all  their  validity 
from  that,  or  to  let  the  whole  of  each  law  compiled  as  before  men 
tioned,  bear  date  when  the  first  act  on  the  subject  was  supposed  |to 
have  existed  under  the  second  charter.  For  although  the  "  body  of 
laws,"  as  enacted  under  the  first  charter  was  continued  under  the 
second,  yet  in  no  instance  do  our  printed  laws  imply  or  express 
an  existence  before  1663-4.f  Whatever  the  intention  was,  great 
inacuracy  exists  as  to  their  true  date.  Thus  the  law  particularly  re 
ferred  to  by  Chalmers,  the  greater  part  of  which  is  from  Magnr- 
Charta,  was  in  substance  passed  in  1647,  as  will  appear  by  an  extrac; 
on  the  former  part  of  this  communication.  The  latter  part  of  the  law, 
and  which  has  occasioned  this  inquiry,  is  in  these  words,  "  And  that  al! 
men  professing  Christianity,  and  of  competent  estates,  and  of  civil  con 
versation,  who  acknowledge,  and  are  obedient  to  the  civil  magistrate, 
though  of  different  judgments  in  religious  affairs,  Roman  Catholics 
only  exccpted,  shall  be  admitted  freemen,  and  shall  have  liberty  to  choose 
and  be  chosen  officers  in  the  colony,  both  military  and  civil."  Nou 
that  this  law  was  not  passed  in  1663-4  is  most  certain,  for  not  only  doe*, 
it  make  no  part  of  the  record  of  either  session  this  year,  but  omittim; 
the  words  professing  Christianity,  and  Roman  Catholics  only  excepted, 
they  are  the  very  words  of  the  second  proposition  of  Carr,  Cartvvright 
and  Maverick,  made  to  the  General  Assembly  in  May  1665,  and 
which  at  the  same  time  were  enacted  into  a  law. 

In  addition  to  this,  these  commissioners,  in  a  narrative  of  their  pro- 

*  There  have  been  five  1719,  1730,  1745, 1767,  and  1798. 

•j-  Policy  might  have  suggested  the  imprudence  of  noticing  an  au 
thority  derived  from  an  act  of  the  Long  Parliament,  under  which  th< 
first  charter  was  granted. 


NOTES. 


433 


eeedings,  under  their  commission,   (Hulchinson's  Col.  412.)  expressly    PART.  I. 
stale  tliat  this  colony  "  admit  all  to  be  freemen  that  desire  it,  they  allow    ^^^  ->_. 
liberty  of  conscience  and  worsliip  to  all  who  live  civilly."     They  fur 
ther  say,  that  "  this  colony,  which  admiis  of  all  religions,  even  Quakers 
and  Generalists,  was  begun   by  such    as  the   Massachusetts  would  not 
suffer  to  live  among  them,  and  is  generally  hated  by  the  other  colonies, 
who  endeavoured  several  ways  to  suppress  them." 

The  answer  of  the  colony  in  1680,  to  the  enquiries  of  the  commis 
sioners  for  foreign  plantations  as  stated  by  Chalmers,  is  a  farther  con 
firmation  of  the  correctness  of  this  statement,  in  which  they  say,  that 
all  of  different  persuasions  and  principles  "  enjoy  their  liberty  accord 
ing  to  his  Majesty's  gracious  charter."  "  \W  leave  every  man  to  walk 
as  God  shall  persuade  their  hearts,  and  do  actively,  impassively  yield 
obedience  to  the  civil  magistrate."  Though  Chalmers,  supposing  the 
law  relative  to  Roman  Catholics  to  have  been  passed  in  1663-4,  consi 
ders  this  answer  to  have  been  a  designed  concealment  of  that  act. 

Thus  you  have  positive  and  indubitable  evidence,  that  the  law  ex 
cluding  Roman  Catholics  from  the  privileges  of  freemen  was  not  passed 
in  1663-4,  but  that  they  were,  by  law,  at  this  time,  and  long  after,  en 
titled  to  all  the  privileges  of  other  citizens ;  and  satisfactory  evidence, 
that  these  privileges  were  continued  by  law  until  1719,  when,  or  in  one 
of  the  subsequent  revisions,  the  words  "professing  Chiistianity,"  and 
"  Roman  Catholics  only  excepted,"  were  inserted  by  the  revising  commit 
tee.  These  words  may  possibly  have  been  inserted  in  a  manuscript  £• 
copy  of  the  laws  sent  over  in  1699,  but  of  this  the  words  afford  no  evi 
dence. 

Roger  Williams  was  an  assistant  (member  of  the  upper  house)  in  the 
years  1664,  1670,  and  1671.  He  was  chosen  in  1677,  but  refused  to 
serve.  He  was  also  a  deputy  (member  of  the  lower  house)  in  May, 
1667.  These  are  the  only  years  in  which  he  was  in  office  under  the 
second  charter.  He  died  in  1682  ;  "  When  he  was  buried  with  all  the 
solemnity  the  colony  was  able  to  shew."  (Gallender.)  Most  of  the  first 
settlers  were  dead  at  this  time.  Indeed,  that  such  a  law  should  have 
been  passed  in  the  lifetime  of  the  first  settlers,  is  hardly  credible.  Re 
ligious  liberty  was  their  pride  and  boast.  The  records  abound  with 
allusions  to  it.  (See  Coll.  Mass.  Hist.  Society,  vol.  vii.  2d  series,  pp.  83, 
85,  88,  103-4.  See  also,  Hutch.  Coll.  154.)  The  legal  enjoyment  of  it 
was  granted  and  secured  at  their  special  request ;  and,  notwithstanding 
this  distinguishing  feature  in  their  government  was  stigmatized  with 
the  most  reproachful  and  opprobrious  epithets,  they  considered  it  as 
their  highest  honour ;  and  themselves  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  natural 
right,  denied  to  the  great  body  of  mankind. 

I  acknowledge  that  this  account  does  not  exhibit  a  very  flattering  view 
of  the  legislative  accuracy  of  Rhode  Island;  but  I  believe  it  exhibits  a 
true  one,  and  that  is  my  object.  It  may  be  proper  to  add,  that  each 
revision  of  the  laws  appears  to  have  been  attended  with  delays  and  dis 
appointments.  It  was  nearly  twenty  years  after  the  appointment  of  the 
first  committee,  for  revising  and  printing  the  laws,  before  the  publica 
tion  of  the  first  edition.  There  was  no  printing  press  in  the  colony  till 
1745,  and  no  newspaper  printed  till  1758.  The  colony  was  frequently 
pressed  by  the  government  in  England  for  copies  of  the'ir  laws  and  other 
proceedings,  and,  in  1699,  they  sent  over  a  copy  of  the  laws  in  manu 
script.  How,  or  from  what  originals  they  were  made  up,  does  not  ap 
pear.  As  usual,  it  was  done  by  a  committee.  A  list  of  the  laws  was 
ordered  to  be  left  in  the  secretary's  office,  but  is  not  now  to  be  found. 

I  would  also  suggest,  that  it  appears  at  all  times  to  have  been  an  im 
portant  object  with  the  colony  to  be  on  the  best  terms  with  the  mother 
country.  Being  poor,  of  small  extent  of  territory,  and  in  contention 
vith  the  bordering  colonies,  both  on  account  of  its  boundaries  and  to- 

Voi,  I,— 3  I 


434  NOTES, 

PART  I.  lerating  principles,  it  required  the  special  protection  of  the  British  go- 
\^y**W  ve>'nment.  1  am  inclined  to  think,  that  the  exception  of  Roman  Catho 
lics  in  the  printed  luvvs  (1745),  was  inserted  with  the  view  of  ingratiating 
the  colony  the  more  with  the  mother  country.  I  have  no  evidence  of 
this  hul  the  general  tenor  of  the  laws,  and  the  spirit  of  liberality  which 
they  always  manifest  on  religious  subjects.  In  1696,  a  letter  was  re 
ceived  from  William  Blaithwait,  containing  a  form  of  association,  recom 
mended  to  be  entered  into,  to  defend  the  king  against  the  conspiracies 
of  the  papists,  "in  consequence  of  the  discovery  of  the  late  horrid  con 
spiracy  against  his  majesty,"  (the  assassination  plot).  It  does  not  ap 
pear,  however,  that  the  general  assembly  took  any  steps  about  it.  Why 
a  law  should  be  passed  to  exclude  from  the  privileges  of  freemen,  those 
who  were  not  inhabitants,  by  those  who  believed  all  to  be  equally  enti 
tled  to  their  religious  opinions,  is  difficult  to  conceive,  unless  for  the 
purpose  above  suggested.  There  were  no  Roman  Catholics  in  the  co 
lony  in  1680.  (Chalmers,  284.)  That  this  colony  was  an  asylum  for  the 
persecuted  of  all  religions,  as  well  of  those  of  none,  is  evident  from 
Cotton  Mather,  who  says,  anno  1695,  "  Rhode  Island  colony  is  a  collec 
tion  of  Antinomians,  Familists,  Antisabbatarians,  Arminians,  Socinians, 
Quakers,  Ranters,  and  every  thing  but  Roman  Catholics  and  true  Chris 
tians."  Douglas,  vol.  ii.  110,  112.  The  same  fact  is  established  by  the 
testimony  of  others  of  the  old  writers,  who  speak  of  the  colony  with  the 
*  utmost  contempt  on  that  account,  and  also  by  the  evidence  of  the  colo- 
•  nial  records.  In  the  proceedings  of  June  session,  1684,  is  this  entry, 
"In  answer  to  the  petition  of  Simon  Medus,  D*vid  Brown,  and  associ 
ates,  being  Jews,  presented  to  this  assembly,  bearing  date  June  24, 
1684,  'we  declare  they  may  expect  as  good  protection  here  as  any 
stranger,  not  being  of  our  nation,  residing  among  us,  in  this  his  majesty's 
colony,  ought  to  have,  being  obedient  to  his  majesty's  laws.' "  These 
Jews  are  supposed  to  have  been  Portuguese. 

On  the  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantz,  many  of  the  Hugonots  set 
tled  in  this  colony.  In  the  proceedings  of  February  session,  1689-90, 
is  this  entry  :  "  Ordered,  that  the  Frenchmen  that  reside  at  Narragan- 
sett  be  sent  for  by  Major  John  Greene,  to  what  place  in  Warwick  he 
shall  appoint,  to  signify  unto  them  the  king's  pleasure,  in  his  proclama 
tion  of  war  (against  France),  and  his  indulgence  to  such  Frenchmen  as 
behave  themselves  well,  and  require  their  engagements  thereunto." 

It  is  observable,  that  the  laws  of  the  colony  never  made  any  provision 
for  ascertaining  any  other  qualification  of  a  freeman,  than  competency 
of  estate,  and  that  no  test  or  oath  could  ever  be  required  by  law  of  any 
man  in  any  case. 

There  is  one  trait  in  the  laws  of  the  first  settlers  of  this  colony,  which 
places  them,  as  advocates  for  the  equal  rights  of  all  men  in  matters  of 
religion,  on  an  elevation  above  their  contemporaries  The  liberality 
of  the  most  liberal  of  the  latter  is  confined  to  Christians,  believers  in  Je 
sus'  holy  church,  (Chalmers,  213,  215,  218,  235.)  ;  that  of  the  former  is 
extended  to  all  men  of  civil  conversation,  without  regard  to  their  opi 
nions,  whether  Christians  or  Jews,  believers  in  Moses,  or  Jesus,  or  Ma 
homet,  or  neither.  The  life  only,  being  of  competent  estates,  furnished 
to  the  former  evidence  of  the  fitness  to  be  freemen.  Chalmers  justly 
contends  for  the  equal  rights  of  the  Roman  Catholics  with  other  Chris 
tians,  and  he  ought,  for  the  same  reasons,  to  have  contended  for  the 
equal  rights  of  Jews,  Mahometans,  and  all  others,  whether  believers  or 
not  believers ;  for  their  natural  rights  are  certainlv  equal. 

N  B  The  records  of  the  colony  from  1663  to  1686  are  entire.  From 
the  latter  period  to  1715,  the  proceedings  of  the  General  Assembly  are 
not  recorded  ;  but  manuscript  copies  of  the  proceedings  during  this 
period,  under  the  seal  of  the  colony,  are  in  the  town  clerk's  office,  and 
some  of  them  in  the  secretary's  office,  and  have  been  examined^  except 


NOTES. 


435 


tor  the  year  1692,  in  which  I  have  found  the  proceedings  of  one  session  PART.  I. 

The  foregoing  is  a  copy  of  a  communication  from  Mr.  Samuel  Eddy, 
secretary  of  this  state  from  October,  1797,  to  May,  1819,  and  now  re 
presentative  in  Congress,  in  reply  to  enquiries  made  by  me  relative  to 
the  correctness  of  the  assertion  of  Chalmers,  (Political  Annals,  p.  276,) 
that  the  toleration  of  Roger  Williams  and  the  first  settlers,  at  Provi 
dence  and  Rhode  Island,  did  not  extend  to  Roman  Catholics. 

JAMES  BUR  RILL,  JTWB. 

Providence,  May  12,  1819. 


(NOTE  D.    p.  51.) 

IT  will  be  thought  extraordinary,  that  Mr.  Brougham,  who  appears  to 
have  read  our  history,  and  not  to  be  unacquainted  with  that  of  England, 
should  have  hazarded  such  a  statement  as  the  following,  in  his  Colonial 
Policy.  "  Long  after  the  moiher  country  had  relinquished  for  ever  the 
arts  of  persecution,  they  found  votaries  in  the  constituted  authorities  ot 
the  colonies;  and  the  northern  states,  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  afforded  the  disgraceful  example  of  that  spiritual  tyranny,  from 
which  their  territories  had  originally  served  as  an  asylum  !"*  The  per 
secutions  for  witchcraft,  of  which  I  have  given  a  full  explanation  in  the 
text,  are  the  only  instances  of  spiritual  persecution,  if  they  can  be  so 
denominated,  which  disgrace  the  annals  of  New  England  at  so  late  a 
period  as  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century.  None  took  place  after 
wards  in  any  of  the  colonies,  except  in  New  York,  where  the  royal  go- 
vernor,  Lord  Cornbury,  of  detested  memory,  attempted  to  stifle  the 
Presbyterian  worship  ;f  and  in  Maryland,  against  the  Catholics,  at  the 
instigation  of  the  British  government.  It  is  true,  that  the  legislatures 
of  Massachusetts  and  New  York  passed  each,  in  the  first  year  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  a  law  proscribing  Catholic  priests  ;  but  the  motive 
was  political;  it  being  believed  that  those  priests  laboured  uniformly 
to  excite  the  Indians  to  hostilities  against  the  Anglo-Americans.  No 
doubt,  the  spirit  of  intolerance  continued  for  some  time  to  prevail,  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  against  popery,  alternately  the  bugbear  and  the 
stalking-horse  of  the  British  rulers.  They,  however,  not  only  studiously 
fomented,  but  exacted  that  spirit  in  the  colonies;  where,  as  we  have 
seen  in  the  last  Note,  it  was  even  thought  necessary  to  counterfeit  per 
secution,  in  order  to  retain  their  favour. 

The  author  of  the  Colonial  Policy  has  not  specified  the  period  at  which 
the  mother  country  relinquished  for  ever  the  arts  of  persecution  ;  and 
after  which  the  constituted  authorities  of  the  colonies  cultivated  them  ; 
but  he  is  to  be  understood  as  referring  to  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  His  accuracy,  or  his  candour,  will  be  illustrated  by  the  follow 
ing  extracts,  which  I  make  from  an  article  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,^ 
commonly  ascribed  to  his  pen. 

"  The  arms  of  William  III.  overthrew  the  last  remnant  of  Catholic 
government  or  ascendancy  in  Britain  and  Ireland ;  and,  by  the  articles 
in  Limerick,  which  closed  the  scene  of  hostility  in  1691,  it  was  ex 
pressly  stipulated,  that  the  Roman  Catholics  should  enjoy  such  privi 
leges,  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion,  as  are  consistent  with  the  laws 

*  B.  I.  p.  1.        f  See  Smith's  History  of  New  York,  vol.  iii,  p.  119, 

*  Volume  for  1807.     Article  on  Catholic  Question, 


436 


NOTES. 


PART  1.  of  Ireland,  or  as  they  did  enjoy  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II. ;  and  their 
\^-v~^/  majesties,  as  soon  as  they  can  summon  a  parliament  in  this  kingdom, 
will  endeavour  to  procure  the  said  Roman  Catholics  such  farther  secur it  i 
in  that  particular  as  may  pi-eserve  them  from  any  disturbance  on  account 
of  their  religion.  This  solemn  instrument  of  pacification,  granted  in 
the  moment  of  victory,  was  ratified  and  published  in  letters  patent,  un 
der  the  great  seal,  in  the  fourth  year  of  king  William  ;  and  in  three 
years  thereafter,  was  passed,  in  direct  violation  of  it,  the  famous  act  for 
preventing  the  growth  of  popery,  the  foundation  and  model  of  the  many 
barbarous  enactments  by  which  that  race  of  men  were  oppressed  for 
little  less  than  a  century  thereafter." 

"  By  this  barbarous  act,  and  the  satutes  by  which  it  was  followed  up, 
Catholics  were  disabled  from  purchasing  or  inheriting  land, — from  being 
guardians  to  their  own  children, — from  having  arms  or  horses, — from 
serving  on  grand  juries, — from  entering  in  the  inns  of  court, — from  prac 
tising  as  barristers,  solicitors,  or  physicians,  &c.  Stc." 

"  At  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  in  short,  when  the  privi 
leges  and  liberties  of  Englishmen  stood  on  so  triumphant  a  footing, 
nothing  remained  to  two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants  of  Ireland,  by  which 
they  could  be  distinguished  from  slaves  or  aliens,  but  the  right  of  voting 
at  elections.  Of  this,  too,  they  were  deprived  wider  the  succeeding 
sovereigns." 

The  following  account  of  the  above  mentioned  act,  and  of  some  of 
its  effects,  given  in  Mr.  Burke's  speech  of  1780,  at  Bristol,  previous  to 
the  election,  is  a  still  more  pointed  commentary  upon  the  assertion  that 
the  arts  of  persecution  were  relinquished  in  Great  Britain,  for  ever,  at 
the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

"A  statute  was  fabricated,"  says  Mr.  Burke,  "in  the  year  1699,  by 
which  the  saying  mass  (a  church-service,  in  the  Latin  tongue,  not  ex 
actly  the  same  as  our  liturgy,  but  very  near  it,  and  containing  no  offence 
against  the  laws,  or  against  goo  1  morals,)  was  forged  into  a  crime  pu 
nishable  with  perpetual  imprisonment.  The  teaching  school,  an  useful 
and  virtuous  occupation,  even  the  teaching  in  a  private  family,  was,  in 
every  Catholic,  subjected  to  the  same  unproportionate  punishment — 
Your  industry,  and  the  bread  of  your  children,  was  taxed  for  a  pecuniary 
reward  to  stimulate  avarice  to  do  what  nature  refused,  to  inform  and 
prosecute  on  this  law — Every  Roman  Catholic  was,  under  the  same  act, 
to  forfeit  his  estate  to  his  nearest  Protestant  relation,  until,  through  a 
profession  of  what  he  did  not  believe,  he  redeemed,  by  his  hypocrisy, 
what  the  law  had  transferred  to  the  kinsman  as  a  recompense  of  his 
profligacy.  When  thus  turned  out  of  doors  from  his  paternal  estate, 
he  was  disabled  from  acquiring  any  other  by  any  industry,  donation,  or 
charity ;  but  was  rendered  a  foreigner  in  his  native  land,  only  because 
he  retained  the  religion,  along  with  the  property,  handed  down  to  him 
from  those  who  had  been  the  old  inhabitants  of  that  land  before  him." 

"  The  effects  of  the  act  have  been  as  mischievous,  as  its  origin  was 
shameful.  From  that  time,  every  person  of  that  communion,  lay  and 
ecclesiastic,  has  been  obliged  to  fly  from  the  face  of  day.  The  clergy, 
concealed  in  garrets  of  private  houses,  or  obliged  to  take  a  shelter 
(hardly  safe  to  themselves,  hut  infinitely  dangerous  to  their  country) 
under  the  privileges  of  foreign  ministers,  officiated  as  their  servants, 
and  under  their  protection.  The  whole  body  of  the  Catholics,  con 
demned  to  beggary  and  to  ignorance  in  their  native  land,  have  been 
obliged  to  learn  the  principles  of  letters,  at  the  hazard  of  all  their  other 
principles,  from  the  charity  of  your  enemies.  They  have  been  taxed  to 
their  ruin,  at  the  pleasure  of  necessitous  and  profligate  relations,  and 
according  to  the  measure  of  their  necessity  and  profligacy.  Examples 
of  this  are  many  and  affecting.  Some  of  them  are  known  by  a  friend 
who  stands  near  me  in  this  hall.  It  is  but  six  or  seven  years  since  ? 


NOTES.  437 

clergyman,  of  the  name  of  Malony,  a  man  of  morals,  neither  guilty,  nor  PART  I. 
accused  of  any  thing  noxious  to  the  state,  was  condemned  to  perpetual  v^^_^^^ 
imprisonment  for  exercising  the  functions  of  his  religion;  and,  after 
lying  in  jail  two  or  three  years,  was  relieved  by  the  mercy  of  govern-  .' 
ment  from  perpetual  imprisonment,  on  condition  of  perpetual  banish 
ment.     A  brother  of  the  earl  of  Shrewsbury,  a  Talbot,  a  name  respect 
able   in  this  country,  whilst  its  glory  is  any  part  of  its  concern,  was 
hauled  to  the  bar  of  the  Old  Bailey,  among  common  felons,  and  only 
escaped  the  same  doom,  either  by  some  error  in  the  process,  or  that 
the  wretch  who  brought  him  there  could  not  correctly  describe  his 
person  ;  I  now  forget  which,"  &.c.     (See  on  this  subject — Note  V.) 


(NOTEE.    p.  86.) 

"On  the  14th  of  December,  1795,"  says  Bryan  Edwards  (Hist,  of  W. 
Indies,  b.  ii.)  "the  British  commissioners  who  went  to  the  Havanna^br 
assistance,  arrived  at  Montego  Bay  with  forty  chasseurs  or  Spanish 
hunters  (chiefly  people  of  colour)  and  about  one  hundred  Spanish  dogs." 
Their  number  was  really  one  hundred  and  twenty  according  to  Dallas, 
and  a  great  proportion  of  them  not  regularly  trained,  so  that  the  fugi 
tive  whom  they  overtook  could  not  escape  being  torn  in  pieces  by  them. 
The  following  compact  is  copied  from  Dallas's  History  (vol.  ii.') — 

"  Articles  of  Agreement  between  his  Britannic  Majesty's  Commissary 
and  the  undersigned  Spanish  Chasseurs. 

"  1st.  We,  the  undersigned,  oblige  ourselves  to  go  to  the  island  of 
Jamaica,  taking  each  three  dogs  for  the  hunting  and  seizing  negroes. — 
2d.  That,  when  arrived  at  the  said  island,  and  informed  of  the  situation 
of  the  runaway  or  rebellious  negroes,  we  oblige  ourselves  to  practice 
every  means  that  may  be  necessary  to  pursue,  and  apprehend  -with  our 
dogs,  said  rebellious  negroes. — 3d.  Our  stay  in  the  island  shall  be  three 
months. — 4th.  If,  at  the  expiration  of  our  being  three  months  in  the 
island  of  Jamaica,  government  should  consider  our  residence  there  for 
a  longer  time  necessary,  it  then  shall  be  at  our  option  to  make  a  new 
agreement,"  &c.  [Here  follow  the  signatures,  &c."| 


(NOTE  F.   p.  92.) 

"To his  most  excellent  majesty  George,  King  of  Great  Britain,  &c 
&c. 

"The  humble  petition  of  his  subjects  the  late  French  inhabitants  of 
Nova  Scotia,  formerly  settled  on  the  Bay  of  Minas  and  rivers  thereunto 
belonging;  now  residing  in  the  province  of  Pennsylvania,  on  behalf  of 
themselves  and  \e  rest  of  the  late  inhabitants  of  the  said  bay,  and  also  of 
those  formerly  settled  on  the  river  of  Annapolis-Royal,  wheresoever 
dispersed. 

"  May  it  please  your  Majesty, 

"  It  is  not  in  our  power  sufficiently  to  trace  back  the  conditions  upon 
which  our  ancestors  first  settled  in  Nova  Scotia,  under  the  protection  of 
your  majesty's  predecessors,  as  the  greatest  part  of  our  elders  who 
were  acquainted  with  these  transactions  are  dead,  but  more  espechrfly 
because  our  papers  which  contained  our  contracts,  records,  &c.  were 
by  violence  taken  from  us,  some  time  before  the  unhappy  catastrophe 


438  NOTES. 

PART  I.  which  has  been  the  occasion  of  the  calamities  \ve  are  now  under,  bit 
^^~^-*^/  we  always  understood  the  foundation  thereof  to  be  from  an  agreement 
made  between  your  majesty's  commanders  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  our  for; 
fathers,  about  the  year  1713,  whereby  they  were  permitted  to  remu  u 
in  the  possession  of  their  lands,  under  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  Briti;  !> 
government,  with  an  exemption  from  bearing  arms,  and  the  allowance 
of  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion. 

"It  is  a  matter  of  certainly  (and  within  the  compass  of  some  of  our 
memories)  that  in  the  year  1730,  general  Philips,  then  governor  of  No'-  a 
Scotia,  did  in  your  majesty's  name  confirm  unto  us,  and  all  the  inhabi 
tants  of  the  whole  extent  of  the  bay  of  Minas  and  rivers  thereunto  b  i- 
longing,  the  free  and  entire  possession  of  those  lands  we  were  the  a 
possessed  of,  which  by  grants  from  the  former  French  government  \ve 
held  to  us  and  our  heirs  forever,  on  paying  the  customary  quit-rents,  &,:, 
And  on  condition  that  we  should  behave  with  due  submission  and  fideliiy 
to  your  majesty,  agreeable  to  the  oath  which  was  then  administered  ;o 
us,  which  is  as  follows,  viz. 

"  We  sincerely  promise  and  swear  by  the  faith  of  a  Christian,  th  it 
"  we  shall  be  entirely  faithful,  and  will  truly  submit  ourselves  to  h;s 
*'  majesty  king  George,  whom  we  acknowledge  as  sovereign  lord  of 
"New  Scotland,  or  Arcadia;  so  God  help  us." 

"  And  at  the  same  time,  the  said  general  Philips  did  in  like  mann<;r 
promise  the  said  French  inhabitants  in  your  majesty's  name,  '  That  they 
should  have  the  true  exercise  of  their  religion,  and  be  exempted  fro.n 
bearing  arms  and  from  being  employed  in  war  either  against  the  French 
or  Indians.'  Under  the  sanction  of  this  solemn  engagement  we  held  oi.r 
lands,  made  further  purchases,  annually  paying  our  quit-rents,  &c.  and 
we  had  the  greatest  reason  to  conclude  that  your  majesty  did  not  disap 
prove  of  the  above  agreement :  and  that  our  conduct  continued  during 
a  long  course  of  years  to  be  such  as  recommended  us  to  your  gracious 
protection,  and  to  the  regard  of  the  governor  of  New  England,  appears 
from  a  printed  declaration  made  seventeen  years  after  this  time,  by  his 
excellency  William  Shirley,  governor  of  New  England,  which  was  pub 
lished  and  dispersed  in  our  country,  some  originals  of  which  have 
escaped  from  the  general  destruction  of  most  of  our  papers,  part  of 
which  is  as  follows. 

"  By  his  Majesty's  command, 

"  A  declaration  of  William  Shirley,  Esq.  captain-general  and  governor 
in  chiefi  in  and  over  his  majesty's  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  &.c. 

"To  his  majesty's  subjects  the  French  inhabitants  of  his  province  of 
Nova  Scotia:  Whereas  upon  being  informed  that  a  report  had  been  pro 
pagaled  among  his  majesty's  subjects  the  French  inhabitants  of  his 
province  of  Nova  Scotia,  that  there  was  an  intention  to  remove  them 
from  their  settlements  in  that  province,  I  did,  by  my  declaration,  dated 
16th  September,  1746,  signify  to  them  that  the  same  was  groundless, 
and  that  I  was  on  the  contrary  persuaded  that  his  majesty  would  be  gra 
ciously  pleased  to  extend  his  royal  protection  to  all  such  of  them  as 
should  continue  in  their  fidelity  and  allegiance  to  him,  and  in  no  wise 
abet  or  hold  correspondence  with  the  enemies  of  his  crown,  and  there 
in  assured  them  that  I  would  make  a  favourable  representation  of  their 
state  and  circumstances  to  his  majrsty,  and  did  accordingly  transmit  a 
representation  thereof  to  be  laid  before  him,  and  have  thereupon  re 
ceived  his  royal  pleasure,  touching  his  aforesaid  subjects  in  Nova  Scotia, 
with  his  express  commands  to  signify  the  same  to  them  in  his  name  : 
Now  by  virtue  thereof,  and  in  obedience  to  his  majesty's  said  orders,  I 
do  hereby  declare  in  his  majesty's  name,  that  there  is  not  the  least  fotin ^ 
dstion  for  any  apprehensions  of  his  majesty's  intending  to  remove  them, 
the  said  inhabitants  of  Nova  Scotia,  from  their  said  settlements  and  ha 


NOTES, 


439 


citations  within  the  said  province,  but  that  on  the  contrary,  it  is  his  ma-   PART  I. 
jesty's  resolution  to  protect  and  maintain  all  such  of  them  as  have  ad-  v^^-v^*^ 
hered  to  and  shall  continue  in  their  duty  and  allegiance  to  him  in  the 
quiet  and  peaceable  possession  oi'  their  respective  habitations  and  set 
tlements,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  rights  and  privileges  as  his  sub 
jects,   &.C.  &C. 

"  Dated  at  Boston,  the  21st  of  October,  1747. 

"  And  this  is  farther  confirmed  by  a  letter  dated  29th  June  in  the  same 
year,  wrote  to  our  deputies  by  Mr.  Mascarine,  then  your  majesty's  chief 
commander  in  Nova  Scotia,  which  refers  to  governor  Shirley's  first  do 
claration,  of  which  we  have  a  copy  legally  authenticated,  part  of  which 
is  as  follows,  viz. 

"  'As  to  the  fear  you  say  you  labour  under  on  account  of  being  threat- 

*  ened  to  be  made  to  evacuate  the  country  you  have  in  possession,  hi? 
'  excellency  William  Shirley's  printed  letter,  whereby  you  may  be  made 
'easy  in  that  respect:  you  are  sensible  of  the   promise  I  have  made  to 
'you,  the  effects  of  which  you  have  already  felt,  that  I  would  protect 

*  you  so  long  as  by  your  good  conduct  and  fidelity  to  the  crown  of  Great 
4  Britain  you  would  enable  me  so  to  do,  which  promise  I  do  again  repeat 
'  to  you.' 

"Near  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the  before  mentioned  declara 
tion,  it  was  required  that  our  deputies  should,  on  behalf  of  all  the  peo 
ple,  renew  the  oath  formerly  taken  to  general  Philips,  which  was  done 
without  any  mention  of  bearing  arms — and  we  can  with  truth  say,  that 
we  are  not  sensible  of  any  alteration  in  our  disposition  or  conduct  since 
that  time,  but  that  we  always  continued  to  retain  a  grateful  regard  to 
your  majesty  and  your  government,  notwithstanding  which  we  have 
found  ourselves  surrounded  with  difficulties  unknown  to  us  before. 
Your  majesty  determined  to  fortify  our  province  and  settle  Halifax;  which 
the  French  looking  upon  with  jealousy,  they  made  frequent  incursions 
through  our  country  in  order  to  annoy  that  settlement,  whereby  we  came 
exposed  to  many  straits  and  hardships;  yet  from  the  obligations  we  were 
under,  from  the  oath  we  had  taken,  we  were  never  under  any  doubt  but 
that  it  was  our  indispensible  duty  and  interest  to  remain  true  to  your  go 
vernment  and  our  oath  of  fidelity,  hoping  that  in  time  those  difficulties 
would  be  removed,  and  we  should  see  peace  and  tranquillity  restored  : 
and  if,  from  the  change  of  affairs  in  Nova  Scotia,  your  majesty  had 
thought  it  not  consistent  with  the  safety  of  your  said  province,  to  let  us 
remain  there  upon  the  terms  promised  us  by  your  governors,  in  your 
majesty's  name,  we  should  doubtless  have  acquiesced  with  any  other 
reasonable  proposal  which  might  have  been  made  to  us,  consistent  with 
the  safety  of  our  aged  parents  and  tender  wives  and  children  ;  and  we 
are  persuaded  if  that  had  been  the  case,  wherever  we  had  retired,  we 
should  have  held  ourselves  under  the  strongest  obligations  of  gratitude 
from  a  thankful  remembrance  of  the  happiness  we  had  enjoyed  undei* 
your  majesty's  administration  and  gracious  protection.  About  the 
time  of  the  settlement  of  Halifax,  general  Cornwallis,  governor  of  Nova 
Scotia,  did  require  that  we  should  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  without 
the  exemption  before  allowed  us,  of  not  bearing  arms;  but  this  we  ab 
solutely  refused,  as  being  an  infringement  of  'the  principal  condition 
upon  which  our  forefathers  agreed  to  settle  under  the  British  govern 
ment. 

"  And  we  acquainted  governor  Cornwallis  that  if  your  majesty  was 
not  willing  to  continue  that  exemption  to  us,  we  desired  liberty  to  eva 
cuate  the  country,  proposing  to  settle  on  the  island  of  St.  John's,  where 
the  French  government  was  willing  to  let  us  have  land,  which  proposal 
he  at  that  time  refused  to  consent  to,  but  told  us  he  would  acquaint  your 
Tiajesty  therewith,  and  return  us  an  answer.  But  \ve  never  received 


440  NOTES. 

PART  1.  an  answer,  nor  was  any  proposal  of  that  made  to  us  until  we  were  mace 
S^Vs*/  prisoners. 

"After  the  settlement  of  Halifax,  we  suffered  many  abuses  and  in 
sults  from  your  majesty's  enemies,  more  especially  from  the  Indians  JR 
the  interest  of  the  French,  by  whom  our  cattle  was  killed,  our  hous(  s 
pillaged,  and  m.my  of  us  personally  abused  and  put  in  fear  of  our  lives 
and  some  even  carried  away  prisoners  towards  Canada,  solely  on  account 
of  our  resolution  steadily  to  maintain  our  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  English 
government,  particularly  lie  re  Leblanc  (our  public  notary)  was  taken 
prisoner  by  the  Indians  when  actually  travelling  in  your  majesty's  ser 
vice,  his  house  pillaged,  and  himself  carried  to  the  French  fort,  from 
whence  he  did  not  recover  his  liberty  but  with  great  difficulty,  after  four 
years  captivity. 

'*  We  were  likewise  obliged  to  comply  with  the  demand  of  the  enemy 
made  for  provision,  cattle,  &c.  upon  pain  of  military  execution,  which 
we  had  reason  to  believe  the  government  was  made  sensible  was  not  an 
act  of  choice  on  our  part,  but  of  necessity,  as  those  in  authority  appear, 
ed  to  take  in  good  part  the  representations  we  always  made  to  them 
after  any  thing  of  that  nature  had  happened. 

"Notwithstanding  the  many  difficulties  we  thus  laboured  under,  ytt 
we  dare  appeal  to  the  several  governors,  both  at  Halifax  and  Annapolis- 
Royal,  for  testimonies  of  our  being  always  ready  and  willing  to  obey 
their  orders,  and  give  all  the  assistance  in  our  power,  either  in  furnisl  - 
ing  provisions  and  materials,  or  making  roads,  building  forts,  &c.  agree 
able  to  your  majesty's  orders,  and  our  oath  of  fidelity,  whensoever  calle  1 
upon,  or  required  thereunto. 

"It  was  also  our  constant  care  to  give  notice  to  your  majesty's  com 
manders  of  the  danger  they  from  time  to  time  have  been  exposed  to  by 
the  enemy's  troops,  and  had  the  intelligence  we  gave  been  always 
attended  to,  many  lives  might  have  been  spared,  particularly  in  the  un 
happy  affair  which  befel  major  Noble  and  his  brother  at  Grand-Pray, 
when  they,  with  great  numbers  of  their  men,  were  cut  off  by  the  enemy, 
notwithstanding  the  frequent  advices  we  had  given  them  of  the  dange.- 
they  were  in  ;  and  yet  we  have  been  very  unjustly  accused  as  parties  in 
that  massacre. 

"  And  although  we  have  been  thus  anxiously  concerned  to  manifest 
our  fidelity  in  these  several  respects,  yet  it  has  been  falsely  insinuated, 
that  it  had  been  our  general  practice  to  abet  and  support  your  majesty's 
enemies;  but  we  trust  that  your  majesty  will  not  suffer  suspicions  and 
accusations  to  be  received  as  proofs  sufficient  to  reduce  some  thousands 
of  innocent  peoplt,  from  the  most  happy  situation  to  a  state  of  the 
greatest  distress  and  misery!  No,  this  was  far  from  our  thoughts;  we 
esteemed  our  situation  so  happy  as  by  no  means  to  desire  a  change 
We  have  always  desired,  and  again  desire  that  we  may  be  permitted  to 
answer  our  accusers  in  a  judicial  way.  In  the  mean  time  permit  us  Sir, 
here  solemnly  to  declare,  that  these  accusations  are  utterly  false  and 
groundless,  so  far  as  they  concern  us  as  a  collective  body  of  people 
It  hath  been  always  our  desire  to  live  as  our  fathers  hath  done,  as  faith 
ful  subjects  under  your  majesty's  royal  protection,  with  an  unfeigned 
resolution  to  maintain  our  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  utmost  of  our  power. 
Yet  it  cannot  be  expected,  but  that  amongst  us,  as  well  as  amongst  other 
people,  there  have  been  some  weak,  and  false-hearted  persons  suscepti 
ble  of  being  bribed  by  the  enemy  so  as  to  break  the  oath  of  fidelity. 
Twelve  of  these  were  outlawed  in  governor  Shirley's  proclamation  be 
fore  mentioned ;  but  it  will  be  found  that  the  number  of  such  false 
hearted  men  amongst  us  were  very  few,  considering  our  situation,  the 
number  of  our  inhabitants,  and  how  we  stood  circumstanced  in  several 
respects :  and  it  may  easily  be  made  appear  that  it  was  the  constan' 


NOTES.  441 

care  of  our  deputies  to  prevent  and  put  a  stop  to  such  wicked  conduct  PART  I. 
when  it  came  to  their  knowledge.  ^^~v~^~s 

"  We  understood  that  the  aid  granted  to  the  French  by  the  inhabi 
tants  of  Chignecto  has  been  used #s  an  argument  to  accelerate  our  ruin  ;. 
but  we  trust  that  your  majesty  will  not  permit  the  innocent  to  be  in 
volved  with  the  guilty;  no  consequence  can  be  justly  drawn,  that  be 
cause  those  people  yielded  to  the  threats  and  persuasions  of  the  enemy, 
we  should  do  the  same.  They  were  situated  so  far  from  Halifax  as  to  be 
in  a  great  measure  out  of  the  protection  of  the  English  government, 
which  was  not  our  case;  we  were  separated  from  them  by  sixty  miles 
of  uncultivated  land,  and  had  no  other  connexion  with  them  than  what 
is  usual  with  neighbours  at  such  a  distance;  and  we  can  truly  say  we 
looked  on  their  defection  from  your  majesty's  interest  with  great'pain 
and  anxiety.  Nevertheless,  not  long  before  our  being  made  prisoners, 
the  house  in  which  we  kept  our  contracts,  records,  deeds,  &c.  were  in 
vested  with  an  armed  force,  and  all  our  papers  violently  carried  away, 
none  of  which  have  to  this  day  been  returned  us,  whereby  we  are  in  a 
great  measure  deprived  of  means  of  making  our  innocency  and  the  just 
ness  of  our  complaints  appear  in  their  true  light. 

"  Upon  our  sending  a  remonstrance  to  the  governor  and  council  of 
the  violence  that  had  been  offered  us  by  the  seizure  of  our  papers,  and 
of  the  groundless  fears  the  government  appeared  to  be  under  on  our 
account,  by  their  taking  away  our  arms,  no  answer  was  returned  us ;  but 
those  who  had  signed  the  remonstrance,  and  some  time  after  sixty 
more,  in  all  about  eighty  of  our  elders,  were  summoned  to  appear  be 
fore  the  governor  and  council,  which  they  immediately  complied  with, 
and  it  was  required  of  them  that  they  should  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
without  the  exemption,  which,  during  a  course  of  near  fifty  years,  had 
been  granted  to  us  and  to  our  fathers,  of  not  being  obliged  to  bear 
arms,  and  which  was  the  principal  condition  upon  which  our  ancestors 
agreed  to  remain  in  Nova  Scotia,  when  the  rest  of  the  French  inhabi 
tants  evacuated  the  country,  which,  as  it  was  contrary  to  our  inclination 
and  judgment,  we  thought  ourselves  engaged  in  duty  absolutely  to  re 
fuse.  Nevertheless,  we  freely  offered,  and  would  gladly  have  renewed, 
our  oath  of  fidelity,  but  this  was  not  accepted  of,  and  we  were  all  im 
mediately  made  prisoners,  and  were  told  by  the  governor,  that  our 
estates,  both  real  and  personal,  were  forfeited  for  your  majesty's  use. 
As  to  those  who  remained  at  home,  they  were  summoned  to  appear 
before  the  commanders  in  the  forts,  which,  we  showing  some  fear  to 
comply  with,  on  the  account  of  the  seizure  of  our  papers,  and  impri 
sonment  of  so  many  of  our  elders,  we  had  the  greatest  assurance  given 
us  that  there  was  no  other  design  but  to  make  us  renew  our  former  oath 
of  fidelity;  yet  as  soon  as  we  were  within  the  fort,  the  same  judgment 
was  passed  on  us  as  had  been  passed  on  our  brethren  at  Halifax,  and 
we  were  also  made  prisoners. 

"  Thus,  notwithstanding  the  solemn  grants  made  to  our  fathers  by 
general  Philips,  and  the  declaration  made  by  governor  Shirley  and  Mr. 
Mascarine  in  your  majesty's  name,  that  it  was  your  majesty's  resolution 
to  protect  and  maintain  all  such  of  us  as  should  continue  in  their  duty 
and  allegiance  to  your  majesty,  in  the  quiet  and  peaceable  possession  of 
their  settlements,  and  the  enjoyment  of  all  their  rights  and  privileges, 
as  your  majesty's  subjects;  we  found  ourselves  at  once  deprived  of 
our  estates  and  liberties,  without  any  judicial  process,  or  even  without 
any  accusers  appearing  against  us,  and  this  solely  grounded  on  mistaken 
jealousies  and  false  suspicions  that  we  were  inclinable  to  take  part  with 
your  majesty's  enemies.  But  we  again  declare  that  that  accusation  is 
groundless  ;'it  was  always  our  fixed  resolution  to  maintain  to  the  utmost 
of  our  power  the  oath  of  fidelity  which  we  had  taken,  not  only  from  a 
sense  of  indispensable  duty,  but  also  because  we  were  well  satisfied  with 

VOL.  I.— 3  K. 


442 


NOTES. 


PART  I.  our  situation  under  your  majesty's  government  and  protection,  and  did 
v^^"V^^/  not  think  it  could  be  bettered  b\  any  change  which  could  be  proposed 
to  us.  It  has  also  been  falsely  insinuated  that  we  held  the  opinion  that 
we  might  be  absolved  from  our  oath  -so  us  to  break  it  with  impunity  ; 
but  tins  we  likewise  solemnly  declare  to  be  a  false  accusation,  and  which 
we  plainly  evinced,  by  our  exposing1  ourselves  to  so  great  losses  and 
sufferings,  rather  than  take  the  oath  proposed  to  the  governor  and 
council,  because  we  apprehended  we  could  not  in  conscience  comply 
therewith. 

"  Thus  we,  our  ancient  parents  and  grand  parents,  (men  of  great  in 
tegrity  and  approved  fidelity  to  your  majesty,)  and  our  innocent  wives 
and  children,  became  the  unhappy  victims  to  those  groundless  fears: 
we  were  transported  into  the  English  colonies,  and  this  was  done  in  so 
much  haste,  and  with  so  little  regard  to  our  necessities  and  the  tenderest 
ties  of  nature,  that  from  the  most  social  enjoyments  and  affluent  cir 
cumstances,  many  found  themselves  destitute  of  the  necessaries  of  life: 
Parents  were  separated  from  children,  and  husbands  from  wives,  some 
of  whom  have  not  to  this  day  met  again  ;  and  we  were  so  crowded  in  the 
transport  vessels,  that  we  had  not  room  even  for  all  our  bodies  to  lay 
.down  at  once,  and  consequently  were  prevented  from  carrying  With  us 
proper  necessaries,  especially  for  the  support  and  comfort  of  the  aged 
and  weak,  many  of  whom  quickly  ended  their  misery  with  their  lives. 
And  even  those  amongst  us  who  had  suffered  deeply  from  your  majesty's 
enemies,  on  account  of  their  attachment  to  \our  majesty's  government, 
were  equally  involved  in  the  common  calamity,  of  which  He;.e  Lablane, 
the  notary  public  before  mentioned,  is  a  remarkable  instance  He  was 
seiz.  »!,  confined,  and  '^ro«ight  away  ,»mong  'lie  rr-st  of  the  people,  and 
his  family,  consisting'  of  twenty  children,  and  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
grand  children,  -were  scattered  in  different  colonies,  so  that  he  was  pvt 
on  shore  at  New  York  with  only  his  wife  and  two  youngest  children,  in 
an  infirm  state  of  health,  from  whence  IK  joined  three  more  of  his 
children  at  I'hiladelphia,  where  he  died  without  any  more  notice  being 
taken  of  him  than  any  of  us,  notwithstanding  his  many  years  labour  and 
deep  sufferings  for  your  majesty's  service. 

"The  miseries  we  have  since  endured  are  scarce  sufficiently  to  be 
expressed,  being  reduced  for  a  livelihood  to  toil  and  h*r>l  labour  in  u 
southern  clime,  so  disagreeable  to  our  constitutions,  that  most  of  us 
have  been  prevented  by  sickness  from  procuring  the  necessary  subsist 
ence  for  our  families,  and  therefore  are  threatened  with  that  which  we 
esteem  the  greatest  aggravation  of  all  our  sufferings,  even  of  having 
our  children  forced  from  us,  and  bound  out  to  strangers,  and  exposed 
to  contagious  distempers  unknown  in  our  native  country. 

"This,  compared  with  the  affluence  and  ease  we  enjoyed,  shows  our 
condition  to  be  extremely  wretched.  We  have  already  seen  in  this 
province  of  Pennsylvania  two  hundred  and  fifty  of  our  people,  which  is 
more  than  half  the  number  that  were  landed  here,  perish  through  misery 
and  various  diseases.  In  this  great  distress  and  misery,  we  have,  under 
God,  none  but  your  majesty  to  look  to  with  hopes  of  relief  and  redress: 
We  therefore  hereby  implore  your  gracious  protection,  and  request  you 
may  be  pleased  to  let  the  justice  of  our  complaints  be  truly  and  impar 
tially  enquired  into,  and  that  your  majesty  would  please  to  grant  us  such 
relief  as  in  your  justice  and  clemency  you  will  think  our  case  requires, 
and  we  shall  hold  ourselves  bound  to  pray,"  &c. 

This  pathetic  appeal  of  the  Acadians  had  not  the  least  effect  with  tin- 
British  government.  When  Jasper  Mauduit,  agent  of  the  province  of 
Massachusetts,  represented  to  Mr.  Grenville,  the  British  minister,  that 
his  most  Christian  majesty,  looking  upon  the  Acadians  as  of  the  number 
of  those  who  had  been  his  most  faithful  subjects,  had  signified  his  \vil- 


NOTES. 


443 


hngness  to  order  transports  for  conveying  them  to  France,  from  the  PART  I. 
British  provinces,  Mr.  Grenville  immediately  said — "that  cannot  be —  -_^-  .  -^_- 
that  is  contrary  to  our  acts  of  navigation — how  can  the    French  court 
send  ships  to  oiir  colonies?"  (See  letter  of  Jasper  Mauduit,  dated  Dec: 
1768,  to  the  Speaker  of  she  Massachusetts  House  of  Representatives — 
in  the  vol.  of  the  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  for  1799.) 


(NOTE  G.  p.  113.) 

"  THE  English  made,  in  1745,  an  important  conquest,  which  they 
considered  as  an  ample  indemnification  for  the  losses  which  the  allies 
had  Buffered  in  the  low  countries:  it  was  that  of  Cape  Breton,"  &c. 
Koch.  Histoire  Abregee  des  Trait  es  de  Puix.  Vol.  ii. 

In  the  negotiations  of  1/48,  France  prescribed  the  restitution  of  Louis- 
bourg  as  the  first  article  of  a  pacification.  It  was  the  first  point  taken 
up  by  the  plenipotentiaries  at  A;x  la  Chapelle  ;  and  the  British  minister 
stated  at  once  the  readiness  of  England  to  restore  it,  for  certain  equi 
valents.  We  have  the  following  Account  in  that  instructive  work,  His- 
toire  de  la  Diplomatic  Frungaise.  (b.  v.  vol.  5  ) 

"  A  memoir  was  sr nt  by  the  French  court  to  the  Count  St.  Se>erin, 
its  minister  at  Aix  la  Chapelle,  upon  the  indispensable  necessity  of  Cape 
Breton  to  France,  and  upon  the  fatal  consequences  of  leaving  that 
island  in  the  hands  of  the  English,  in  relation  to  the  free  trade  of  Canada 
and  Louisiana,  and  the  general  trade  of  the  other  powers  of  Europe." 
"It  will  be  the  more  necessary,"  said  the  official  instructions,  "  to  shew 
merely  a  moderate  wish  to  recover  the  island,  as  \ve  know  that  England 
has  it  not  much  at  heart  to  retain  her  cojiqnest.  The  Count  St.  Severin 
may  then  give  the  Earl  of  Sandwich  to  understand,  that  the  loss  of 
Cape  Breton  is  less  important  in  itself,  than  on  account  of  the  stress 
laid  upon  it  by  the  public  opinion  in  France  ;  and  that  the  king  does 
not  attach  so  much  consequence  to  the  matter  himself,  as  not  to  prefer 
an  equivalent  in  the  low  countries,"  &c. 

It  is  stated  in  the  work  from  which  I  have  made  these  quotations, 
that  the  British  court  proposed  to  France,  in  1755,  that  the  whole 
southern  bank  of  the  river  St.  Lawrence  should  remain  uninhabited,  and 
the  lakes  unappropriated.  "  The  pretext  of  the  war  of  1756,"  *iys  the 
same  work,  "on  the  part  of  England,  was  the  encroachment  of  the 
French  on  the  limits  of  Acadia,  and  some  acts  of  violence  committed  on 
the  Ohio ;  but  the  real  motive  was  to  avail  herself  of  the  supposed 
weakness  of  the  cabinet  of  Versailles,  to  destroy  the  French  navy,  and 
to  avenge  the  defeats  of  Fontenoy  and  of  Lawfeldt.  (Vol.  vi.  b.  1.) 


(XOTE  H.  p.  119  ) 

BRABDOCK'S  papers  all  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French.  In  the  year 
1757,  there  was  made  and  published  in  Philadelphia,  a  translation  of 
three  French  volumes  found  on  board  a  French  privateer,  and  contain 
ing  authenticated  copies  of  those  papers.  They  throw  great  light  upon 
the  origin  of  his  expedition,  and  do  not  redound  to  the  credit  of  tha 
British  government  for  good  faiih  in  its  negotiation  with  France,  preli 
minary  to  the  war  of  1756.  A  few  extracts  from  the  instructions  given 
to  Braddock,  and  his  correspondence  with  his  government,  may  serve 
to  amuse  the  American  reader. 


444  NOTES. 

PART  1.  "  His  lloyal  Highness  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,"  says  the  letter  of  in 
v,^-v~«^/  structions  of  November  25,  1754,  "  recommends  to  you  that  it  be  con 
stantly  observed  among  the  troops  under  your  command,  to  be  particu 
larly  careful  that  they  be  not  thrown  into  a  panic  by  the  Indians,  with 
which  they  are  yet  unacquainted,  whom  the  French  will  certainly  em 
ploy  to  frighten  them.  His  Royal  Highness  recommends  to  you  the  visit 
ing  your  posts  night  and  day,  that  your  colonels  and  other  officers  be 
careful  to  do  it,  and  that  you  yourself  frequently  set  them  the  example, 
and  give  all  your  troops  plainly  to  understand  "that  no  excuse  will  be  ad- 
mittedfor  any  surprise  -whatsoever." 

Part  of  a  letter  from  General  Jlraddock,  to  the  Hon.  Thomas  Robinson. 

"Alexandria,  19th  of  April,  1755 

"Governor  Shirley  will  acquaint  you,  sir,  of  the  expense  of  JVet»  Eng- 
land  upon  the  prodigious  levy  of  men  that  has  been  made  in  these  go- 
vernments,/ur  the  enterprises  of  the  north,  the  other  governors  have  done 
very  little,  or  rather  nothing.  I  cannot  but  take  the  liberty  to  repre 
sent  to  you  the  necessity  of  laying  a  tax  upon  all  Jiis  majesty's  dominions 
zn  America,  agreeably  to  the  result  of  council,  for  reimbursing  the  great 
sums  that  must  be  advanced  for  the  service  and  interest  of  the  colonies 
in  this  important  crisis." 

From  the  same  to  the  same. 

11  Fort  Cumberland,  (at  Will's  Creek) 

June  5th,  1755. 

**  I  have  at  last  assembled  all  the  troops  destined  for  the  attack  of 
Fort  du  Quesne,  which  amount  to  two  thousand  effective  men,  of  which 
there  are  eleven  hundred  furnished  by  the  southern  provinces,  who  havr 
so  tittle  courasre  and  disposition,  that  scarce  any  military  service  can  be  ex 
pected  from  them,  though  I  have  employed  the  best  officers  to  form 
them." 

"I  desired  Mr.  B.  Franklin,  Post-Master  of  Pennsylvania,  who  lias 
great  credit  in  the  provinces,  to  hire  me  one  hundred  and  fifty  wag 
gons  and  the  number  of  horses  necessary,  which  he  did  with  so  much 
goodness  and  readiness,  that  it  is  almost  the  first  instance  of  integrity. 
address,  and  ability  that  I  have  seen  in  all  these  provinces." 


(NOTE  I.  p.  125..) 

His  Excellency  the  Commander  in  Chief,  the  Earl  of  London,  though 
of  a  very  lordly  carriage  towards  the  provincials,  was  unable  to  stifle 
the  petulance  of  their  press.  The  newspapers  of  their  large  towns 
carped  and  sneered  at  his  operations,  in  a  manner  that  might  have  pro 
voked  the  master  of  fewer  legions  to  exert  a  vigour  beyond  the  law. 
The  following  piece  published  in  a  New-York  gazette,  during  his  pre 
sence  in  that  city,  shows  the  boldness  of  the  censorship  exercised  over 
the  management  of  the  British  commanders,  and  furnishes  a  good 
sketch  of  the  first  campaigns  of  the  war. 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  J\*ew  York,  to  a  gentleman  in  London,  dated  New  - 
York,  August  26,  1757 

*'  The  situation  of  affairs  in  America,  grow  more  and  more  danger 
ous  ;  and  what  makes  us  despair  of  seeing  things  mend,  is  that,  by  I 


NOTES.  445 

know  not  what  fatality  of  conduct  in  our  commanders,  the  more  we  are    PART  I. 
strengthened  with  land  forces  from  Great  Britain,  the  more  ground  we  \^~y~<^*> 
lose  against  the  French,  whose  number  of  regular  troops  is,  according 
to  the  best  information  we  can  get  here,  much  inferior  to  ours. 

"To  give  you  some  idea  of  this,  all  the  success  we  can  pretend  to 
boast  of  in  the  course  of  this  war,  happened  in  the  two/rsJ  years  of  it, 
when  we  had  not  a  fourth  part  of  the  regular  troops  we  now  have,  and 
the  French  had  at  least  an  equal  number  in  Canada  and  Louisbourg. 

"Our  campaign  in  1755,  opened  with  an  exped'.tion  against  the  en 
croachments  of  the  French  in  Nova-Scotia,  with  about  four  hundred 
troops  of  the  three  regiments  posted  there,  and  two  thousand  New- 
England  irregulars,  fitted  out  from  Boston  ;  which  was  conducted  in 
such  a  manner,  that  the  French  forts  upon  the  isthmus  were  soon  sur 
rendered  to  us  ;  their  garrisons  transported  to  Louisbourg ;  one  of  their 
forts  upon  the  river  St.  John,  abandoned  by  them,  and  their  settlements 
about  it  broken  up  ;  and  in  the  same  year  our  own  fortifications  were 
advanced  towards  Montreal  as  far  as  lake  St.  Sacrament,  now  lake 
George,  as  in  the  preceding  year  they  had  likewise  begun  to  be  upon 
the  river  Kennebeck,  towards  the  metropolis  of  Canada : — And  the 
French  general  Deiskau,  who  came  from  France  that  year  with  about 
three  thousand  troops,  and  had  begun  his  march  to  invest  Oswego,  was 
prevented  from  making  an  attempt  upon  it,  and  defeated  in  his  attack 
upon  our  camp  at  Lake  George  ;  and  in  the  year  1756,  a  large  party  of 
French  regulars,  Canadians  and  Indians,  which  attacked  by  surprise  a 
party  of  our  batteaux  men,  upon  the  river  Onondago,  were  entirely  de 
feated  by  an  inferior  number  of  them. 

"  No  sooner  were  our  forces  increased  by  those  which  arrived  here 
from  Europe  with  general  Abercrombie,  in  June,  1756,  but  things  took 
a  very  different  turn.  Though  timely  information  was  given,  that  a 
large  French  camp  was  formed  within  about  thirty  miles  of  Oswego, 
with  intent  speedily  to  attack  it ;  yet,  by  some  unaccountable  delay  to 
send  it  a  reinforcement,  that  most  material  place  was  lost ;  General 
Webb,  who  did  at  last  embark  with  one  for  its  relief,  not  setting  out 
till  two  days  before  it  was  taken. 

"  Our  next  misfortune,  which  followed  close  upon  the  heels  of  this, 
was,  that  when  our  general  had  got  as  far  as  the  great  carrying-place, 
at  Oneida,  (a  pass  in  the  country  of  the  Six  Nations,)  which  was  so 
strongly  fortified,  and  so  inaccessible  to  the  enemy's  artillery,  that  it 
might  have  defied  the  whole  French  army  to  take  it,  he  demolished 
the  fort  and  works  there  in  a  few  days,  and  retired  with  his  forces  to  a 
place  called  the  German-Flats,  which  is  sixty  miles  nearer  Albany,  and 
soon  after  to  Schenectady,  which  is  no  more  than  seventeen  miles  from 
that  city  ;  and  thereby  not  only  abandoned  the  Six  Nations  of  Indians, 
and  their  country,  to  the  enemy,  but  left  the  French  a  free  passage 
from  Oswego,  through  the  Mohawks  river,  to  Schenectady. — And  what 
is  still  more  extraordinary  in  this,  is,  that  whilst  the  general  was  de 
molishing  the  works  at  this  carrying-place,  and  retiring  back  to  Sche 
nectady,  the  French  were  as  busy  in  demolishing  the  works  at  Oswego, 
and  retiring  from  thence  back  towards  Montreal. 

"  This  precipitate  retreat  was  immediately  followed  by  as  fatal  a  de 
lay  ;  for  though  we  had  a  sufficient  force  ready  to  have  proceeded  that 
year  in  our  expedition  against  Crown-Point,  yet  we  wasted  the  whole 
season  in  entrenching  at  Lake  George,  and  fortifying  Fort  William- 
Henry  there ;  the  consequence  of  which  was,  that  we  not  only  lost  a 
favourable  opportunity  for  making  an  attempt  against  Crown-Po'int,  but 
paid  for  that  neglect,  by  the  loss  of  Fort  William-Henry  itself,  this 
year. 

"  This  closed  our  operations  in  1756  :  The  beginning  of  this  year  was 
spent  in  making  preparations  for  the  expedition  against  Louisbourg, 


446  NOTES. 

PART  I.  which  took  us  up  till  the  latter  end  of  June  ;  then  our  transports  sailed 
V^-v-^,/  from  lience  for  Halifax,  with  about  six  thousand  regular  troops;  and  in 
their  passage  most  miraculously  escaped  being  taken  by  the  French 
ships,  which,  we  are  informed,  had  been  about  five  days  before  cruiz 
ing  oil'  that  harbour.  After  spending  about  five  weeks  at  Halifax  in 
holding  councils  of  war,  the  result  of  them  was,  to  Jay  aside  the  expedi 
tion  against  Louisbourg. 

"  Whilst  we  were  employed  in  making  this  dangerous  passage  to  Ha 
lifax,  and  holding  councils  of  war  there,  Mons.  Montcalm  took  the  op 
portunity  of  lord  London's  absence,  and  proceeded  from  Quebec  to 
Crow n- Point,  with  about  ten  thousand  men,  consisting  of  regular  troops, 
Canadians,  and  Indians;  from  whence  he  made  Fort  William-Henry  a 
visit,  which  he  took,  after  a  siege  of  about  five  or  six  days,  and  demo 
lished  :  disabled  the  garrison,  which  consisted  of  about  two  thousand 
three  hundred  men,  from  serving  against  the  French  for  the  space  of 
eighteen  months;  made  himself  master  of  our  magazines  of  provision 
and  stores ;  the  former  of  which  were  of  very  great  service  to  the  ene 
my  ;  and  secured  the  entire  possession  of  the  lakes  between  Lake- 
George  and  Montreal;  finish*  d  this  business,  and  retired  with  his 
army,  before  the  return  of  lord  London  with  his  troops  from  Halifax, 
which  are  expected  here  every  day. 

"  Such  is  the  present  state  of  our  affairs,  the  fruits  of  our  two  last 
years  inactive  campaigns,  of  our  wans  of  proper  intelligence,  and  the 
little  use  we  make  of  what  we  do  get  !  we  find  by  woful  experience, 
that  our  great  numbers  of  regular  iroops  have  been  of  no  service,  foi 
want  of  proper  management  ;  the  French  carry  all  before  them:  and 
what  the  next  year  will  produce,  God  only  knows ;  I  tremble  te 
think." 


(NOTE  J.  p.  131.) 

EVKKT  account  of  these  campaigns,  which  was  published  in  England, 
contained  some  fabricated  or  distorted  anecdotes,  tendii.g  to  bring  ri 
dicule  or  contempt  upon  the  provincials  In  Knox's  Historical  Jour 
nal,*  for  instance,  the  most  considerable  and  esteemed  work  respecting 
the  operations  in  America  from  1756  to  1760, 1  find  such  stories  as  the 
two  which  I  am  to  quote,  and  which  have  neither  verisimilitude  nor 
poignancy  to  compensate  for  their  falsehood. 

"  March  29,  1758 — Two  sail  of  ships  were  discovered  to  cross  the 
basin  below,  and  run  up  Moose  and  Bear  rivers,  which  being  unusual 
for  British  ships,  a  boat  was  sent  down  for  intelligence  and  to  watch 
their  motions.  The  boat  returned,  and  brought  up  the  masters  of  the 
two  vessels;  they  came  from  fort  Cumberland,  and  are  bound  to  Boston; 
by  them  we  are  informed  there  is  an  embargo  laid  on  all  the  ports  of 
New  England,  New  York,  Halifax,  &.c.  £.c.  We  hear  of  great  prepa 
rations  for  opening  the  campaign,  that  there  are  more  troops  expected 
from  Europe,  and  that  the  province  of  Massachusetts  is  raising  a  large 
body  of  provincials  lo  co-operate  with  the  regulars;  the  masters  of 
these  sloops  say,  that  ;.ll  is  well  at  Chegnecto,  and  also  at  Fort  Edward 
and  Fort  Sackville,  where  they  have  lately  been;  these  men  farther  add, 
that  it  was  reported  at  Boston,  that  the  particular  department  of  the 

*  Historical  Journal  of  the  Campaigns  in  Xorth  America  for  the 
years  1757, 1758  1759,  and  1760,  by  e.iptain  John  Knox :  dedicated  by 
permission,  to  General  Amherst.  2  vols.  4to. 


NOTES.  447 

New  England  troops  this  campaign,  would  be  the  reduction  of  Canada;    PART  I. 
this  was  mutter  of  great  minh  to  us,  and  an  officer  who  uas  present,  ^^r^r-^m^- 
humorous!)  replied,  Jlnd  let  the  regulars  remain  in  the  different  forts  and 
garrisons,  to  hew  wood  and  dig  sand,  &c  then  the  French  ivill  dejine/i/  hum- 
died  in  America"     Vol.  i.  p.  112. 

"  December  1st.  1758. — We  weighed  this  morning  about  eight 
o'clock,  and  attempted  to  get  out  into  the  bay  ;  but  not  consulting  the 
proper  time  of  tide,  we  were  obliged  to  put  back,  and  come  to  an  an 
chor  ;  about  noon  we  weighed  again  with  the  tide  of  ebb,  and  little 
wind  falling,  with  an  agitated  sea,  occasioned  by  conflicting  currents, 
our  transport  missed  stays,  and  we  narrowly  escaped  being  wrecked 
upon  a  lee  shore,  where  the  vessel  would  probably  have  becMi  dashed 
to  pieces,  the  western  side  of  the  entrance  being  a  complete  ledge  of 
rocks,  the  master  instantly  fell  upon  his  knees,  crying  out — '  What 
shall  we  do  ?  I  vow  I  fear  we  shall  all  be  lost,  let  us  go  to  prayers  ;  what 
can  we  do  dear  Jonathan  ?'  Jonathan  went  forward  muttering  to  him 
self,  'do — I  vow  Ebenezer,  I  don't  know  what  we  shall  do  any  more 
than  thyself;'  whc-n  fortunately  one  of  our  soldiers,  who  was  a  thorough 
bred  seaman,  and  had  served  several  years  on  board  a  ship  of  Wi-r,  and 
after  wards  in  a  privateer,  hearing  and  seeing  the  helpless  state  of  mind 
-.i'hich  our  poor  J\'ew  England  men  were  under,  and  our  sloop  driving  to 
wards  the  shore,  called  out,  '  why  d —  your  eyes  and  limbs, — down 
with  her  sails  and  let  her  drive  a — e  foremost ;  what  the  devil  signifies 
your  canting  and  praying  now  ?' — Ebenezer  quickly  taking  the  hint, 
called  to  Jonathan  *o  lower  the  sails,  saying,  *  he  vowed  he  believed 
that  young  man's  advice  was  very  good,'  but  wished  he  had  not  deli 
vered  it  so  profanely.'  However,  it  answered  to  our  wish;  every  thing 
that  was  necessary  was  transacted  instantaneously  ;  the  soldier  gave  di 
rections,  and  seizing  the  helm,  we  soon  recovered  ourselves,  cleared 
the  straight,  and  drove  into  the  bay  stern  foremost." 

Knox's  Hist.  Journal,  vol.  i.  p.  217-18. 

The  London  newspapers  were  never  without  "  extracts  of  letters 
from  officers  serving  in  the  British  army  in  America,"  which  surpassed 
the  formal  relations  of  the  war,  in  ridicule  and  obloquy  of  the  Ameri 
cans.  A  lampoon  of  this  description,  published  in  the  London  Chroni 
cle  of  May,  1759,  drew  an  answer  from  Dr.  Franklin,  which  was  in 
serted  in  the  same  paper  a  few  days  afterwards.  1  have  not  seen  thi< 
characteristic  production  in  any  collection  of  his  works,  and  I  therefore 
give  it  place  in  this  volume,  with  the  aim  of  which  it  so  happily  co 
incides.  It  evidences  the  staleness,  as  it  explodes  the  absurdity  ol 
those  contumelious  allegations  against  us,  which  the  same  spirit  that 
gave  them  birth  at  the  earliest  period,  and  has  never  since  declined, 
now  reproduces  in  the  British  Journals. 

From  the  London  Chronicle. 
"  MR.  CHRONICLE, 

"  SIR,  while  the  public  attention  is  so  much  turned  towards  America, 
every  letter  from  thence  that  promises  new  information,  is  pretty  ge 
nerally  read  ;  it  seems  therefore  the  more  necessary  that  cure  should 
be  taken  to  disabuse  the  public,  when  those  letters" contain  facts  false 
in  themselves,  and  representations  injurious  to  bodies  of  people,  or 
even  to  private  persons. 

"  In  your  paper,  No.  310,  I  find  an  extract  of  a  letter,  said  to  be  from 
a  gentleman  in  general  Abercrombie's  army.  As  there  are  several 
strokes  in  it  tending1  to  render  the  colonies  despicable,  and  even  odious 
to  the  mother  country,  which  mav  have  ill  consequences  ;  and  no  no 
tice  having  been  taken  of  the  injuries  contained  in  that  letter,  other 


448  NOTES. 

PART  I.    letters  of  the  same  nature  have  since  been  published ;  permit  me  tt* 

'^^~   -m^j  make  a  few  observations  on  it. 

"The  writer  says,  'New-England  was  settled  by  Presbyterians  and 
Independents,  who  took  shelter  there  from  the  persecutions  of  Arch 
bishop  Laud  ;— they  still  retain  their  original  character,  they  generally  hati 
the  Church  of  England J  says  lie.  It  is  very  (rue,  that  if  some  resentmiMV 
still  remained  for  the  hardships  their  fathers  suffered,  it  might  perhaps; 
be  not  much  wondered  at;  but  the  fact  is,  that  the  moderation  of  tlu 
present  Church  of  England  towards  dissenters  in  old  as  well  as  New 
England,  has  quite  effaced  those  impressions;  the  dissenters  too  are  be 
come  less  rigid  and  scrupulous,  and  the  good  will  between  those  differ 
ent  bodies  in  that  country,  is  now  both  mutual  and  equal. 

"  He  goes  on  :  '  They  came  out  with  a  levelling  spirit,  and  they  retain  it . 
They  cannot  bear  to  tldnk  that  one  man  should  be  exorbitantly  rich-,  and  ano 
ther  poor  ;  so  that,  except  in  the  sea  port  towns,  there  are  few  great  estate, 
among  them.  This  equality  produces  also  a  rusticity  of  manners  i  for  in  theii 
language,  dress,  and  in  all  their  behaviour,  they  are  more  boorish  than  an} 
thing  you  ever  saw  in  a  certain  northern  latitude.'  One  would  imagine  fron 
this  account,  that  those  who  were  growing  poor,  plundered  ihose  wh< 
were  growing  rich,  to  preserve  this  equality,  and  that  property  had  IK 
protection  ;  whereas,  in  fact,  it  is  no  where  more  secure  than  in  UK 
]Nrew  England  colonies,  the  law  is  no  where  better  executed,  or  justic? 
obtained  at  less  expence.  The  equality  he  speaks  of,  arises  first  fron 
a  more  equal  distribution  of  lands  by  the  assemblies  in  the  first  settle 
ment  than  has  been  practised  in  the  other  colonies,  where  favourites  o! 
governors  have  obtained  enormous  tracts  for  trifling  considerations,  to 
the  prejudice  both  of  the  crown  revenues  and  the  public  good  ;  and  se 
condly,  from  the  nature  of  their  occupation;  husbandmen  with  snul: 
tracts  of  land,  though  they  may  by  industry  maintain  themselves  and  fa 
milies  in  mediocrity,  having  few  means  of  acquiring  great  wealth,  espe 
cially  in  a  young  colony  that  is  to  be  supplied  with  its  cloathing,  and 
many  other  expensive  articles  of  consumption  from  the  mother  coun 
try.  Their  dress  the  gentleman  may  be  a  more  critical  judge  of,  than 
I  can  pretend  to  be  :  all  I  know  of  it  is,  that  they  wear  the  manufacture 
of  Britain,  and  follow  its  fashions  perhaps  too  closely,  every  remark 
able  change  in  the  mode  making  its  appearance  there  within  a  feu 
months  after  its  invention  here;  a  natural  effect  of  their  constant  inter 
course  with  England,  by  ships  arriving  almost  every  week  from  the  ca 
pital,  their  respect  for  the  mother  country,  and  admiration  of  every 
thing  that  is  British.  But  as  to  their  language,  I  must  beg  this  gentle 
man's  pardon,  if  I  differ  from  him.  His  ear,  accustomed  perhaps  to  the 
dialect  practised  in  the  certain  northern  latitude  he  mentions,  may  not  be 
qualified  to  judge  so  nicely  what  relates  to  pure  English.  And  1  appeal 
to  all  Englishmen  here,  who  have  been  acquainted  with  the  colonists, 
whether  it  is  not  a  common  remark,  that  they  speak  the  language  with 
such  an  exactness  both  of  expression  and  accent,  that  though  you  may- 
know  the  natives  of  several  of  the  counties  of  England,  by  peculiarities 
in  their  dialect,  you  cannot  by  that  means  distinguish  a  North  Ameri 
can.  All  the  new  books  and  pamphlets  worth  reading,  that  are  pub 
lished  here,  in  a  few  weeks  are  transmitted  and  found  there,  where 
there  is  not  a  man  or  woman  born  in  the  country  but  what  can  read  . 
and  it  must,  I  should  think,  be  a  pleasing  reflection  to  those  who  write 
either  for  the  benefit  of  the  present  age  or  of  posterity,  to  find  their 
audience  increasing  with  the  increase  of  our  colonies ;  and  their  lan 
guage  extending  itself  beyond  the  narrow  bounds  of  these  islands,  to  a 
continent  larger  than  all  Europe,  and  to  a  future  empire  as  fully  peo 
pled,  which  Britain  may  probably  one  day  possess  in  those  vast  western 
regions. 

"  But  the  gentleman  makes  more  injurious  comparisons  than  these 


NOTES,  449 

'  That  latitude,'  he  says,  « has  this  advantage  over  them,  that  it  has  pro-  p  « RT  I. 
rluccd  sharp,  acute  men,  fit  for  war  or  learning-,  whereas,  the  others  are 
remarkably  simple  or  silly,  and  blunder  eternally.  We  have  6000  of 
their  milit.b,  which  the  general  would  willingly  exchange  for  2000  re 
gulars.  They  are  for  ever  marring  some  one  or  other  of  our  plans, 
when  sent  to  execute  them.  They  can,  indeed,  some  of  them  at  least, 
range  in  the  woods;  hut  300  Indians  with  their  yell,  throw  5000  of 
them  in  a  panic,  and  then  they  will  leave  nothing  to  the  enemy  to  do, 
for  they  will  shoot  one  another;  and  in  the  woods  our  regulars  are 
afraid  to  be  on  a  command  with  them  on  that  very  account*  I  doubt, 
Mr.  Chronicle,  that  this  paragraph,  when  it  comes  to  be  read  in  Ame 
rica,  will  have  no  good  effect;  and  rather  increase  that  inconvenient 
disgust  which  is  too  apt  to  arise  between  the  troops  of  different  corps,  or 
countries,  who  are  obliged  to  serve  together.  Will  not  a  New-England 
officer  be  apt  to  retort  and  say,  what  foundation  have  you  for  this  odi 
ous  distinction  in  favour  of  the  officers  from  your  certain  northern  lati 
tude  ?  They  may,  as  you  say,  be  fa  for  learning ;  but,  surely,  the  return 
of  your  first  general,  with  a  well  appointed  and  sufficient  force,  from 
his  expedition  against  Louisbourg,  without  so  much  as  seeing  the 
place,  is  not  the  most  shining  proof  of  his  talents  for  -war.  And  no  one 
will  say  his  plan  was  marred  by  us,  for  we  were  not  \vith  him. — Was  his 
successor  who  conducted  the  blundering  attack,  and  inglorious  retreat 
from  Ticonderoga,  a  New-England  man,  or  one  of  that  certain  latitude  ? 
— Then  as  to  the  comparison  between  regulars  and  provincials,  will  not 
the  latter  remark,  that  it  was  2000  New-England  provincials,  with 
about  150  regulars,  that  took  the  strong  fort  of  Beausejour,  in  the  be 
ginning  of  the  war;  though  in  the  accounts  transmitted  to  the  English 
Gazette,  the  honour  was  claimed  by  the  regulars,  and  little  or  no  no 
tice  taken  of  the  others. — That  it  was  the  provincials  who  beat  general 
Dieskau,  with  his  regulars,  Canadians,  and 'yelling  Indians',  and  sent 
him  prisoner  to  England. — That  it  was  a  provincial-born  officer,*  with 
American  batteauxmen,  that  beat  the  French  and  Indians  on  Oswego  ri 
ver. — That  it  was  the  same  officer,  with  provincials,  who  made  that 
long  and  admirable  march  into  the  enemy's  country,  took  and  destroy 
ed  fort  Frontenac,  with  the  whole  French  fleet  on  the  lakes,  and 
struck  terror  into  the  heart  of  Canada. — That  it  was  a  provincial  offi- 
cer,f  with  provincials  only,  who  made  another  extraordinary  march 
into  the  enemy's  country,  surprized  and  destroyed  the  Indian  town  of 
Kittanning,  bringing  off  the  scalps  of  their  chiefs. — That  one  ranging 
captain  of  a  few  provincials,  Rogers,  has  harrassed  the  enemy  more  on 
the  frontiers  of  Canada,  and  destroyed  more  of  their  men,  than  the 
whole  army  of  regulars. — That  it  was  the  regulars  who  surrendered 
themselves,  with  the  provincials  under  their  command,  prisoners  of 
war,  almost  as  soon  as  they  were  besieged,  with  the  forts,  fleet,  and  all 
the  provisions  and  stores  that  had  been  provided  and  amassed  at  so  im 
mense  an  expence,  at  Oswego. — That  it  was  the  regulars  who  surren 
dered  fort  William-Henry,  and  suffered  themselves  to  be  butchered 
and  scalped  with  arms  in  their  hands. — That  it  was  the  regulars  under 
Braddock,  who  were  thrown  into  a  panic  by  the  *  yells  of  3  or  400  In 
dians,'  in  their  confusion  shot  one  another,  and,  with  five  times  the 
force  of  the  enemy,  fled  before  them,  destroying  all  their  own  stores, 
ammunition,  and  provision! — These  regular  gentlemen,  will  the  provin 
cial  rangers  add,  may  possibly  be  afraid,  as  they  say  they  are,  to  be  on  a 
command  ivith  us  in  the  woods  ;  but  when  it  is  considered,  that  from  all 
past  experience,  the  chance  of  our  shooting  them  is  not  as  one  to  a 
hundred,  compared  with  that  of  their  being  shot  by  the  enemy  ;  may  it 

*  Colonel  Bradstreet.  f  Colonel  Armstrong1,  of  Pennsvlvania, 

VOL.  I.— 3  L 


450  NOTES. 

PARTI,    not  be  suspected,  that  what  they  give  as  the  very  account  of  their  fear 
.^^^^^  j  and  unwillingness  to  venture  out  with  us,  is  only  the  very  excuse  ;  and 
that  a  concern  for  their  scalps  \veighsmore  with  them  than  a  regard  for 
their  honour. 

"  Such  as  these,  Sir,  I  imagine  may  be  the  reflections  extorted  by  such 
provocation,  from  the   provincials  in   general.     But  the  New-England 
men  in  particular,  will  have  reason  to  resent  the  remarks  on  their  re 
duction  of  Louisbourg.     Your  writer  proceeds,   '  Indeed  they  are  all 
very  ready  to  make  their  boast  of  taking  Louisbourg,  in  1745;  but  if 
people  were  to  be  acquitted  or  condemned  according  to  the  propriety 
and  wisdom  of  their  plans,  and  not  according  to  their  success,  the  per 
sons  that  undertook  the  siege,  merited  little  praise  :  for  I  have  heard 
officers,  who  assisted  at  it,  say,  never  was  any  thing  more  rash  ;  for  had 
one  single  part  of  their  plan  failed,  or  had  the  French  made  the  for- 
tieth  part  of  the  resistance  then  that  they  have  made  now,  every  soul  of 
the  New  Englanders  must  have  fallen  in  the  trenches.     The  garrison 
was  weak,  sickly,  and  destitute  of  provisions,  and  disgusted,  and  there 
fore  became  a  ready  prey  ;  and,  when  they  returned  to  France,  were 
decimated  for  their  gallant  defence.'     Where  then  is  the  glory  arising 
from  thence  ? — After  denying  his  facts,   *  that  the  garrison  was  weak, 
wanted  provisions,  made  not  a  fortieth  part  of  the  resistance,  were  de 
cimated,'  Sac.  the  New-England  men  will  ask  this  regular  gentleman,  if 
the  place  was  well  fortified,  and  had  ( ;s  it  really  had)  a  numerous  gar 
rison,  was  it  not  at  least  brave  to  attack  it  with  a  handful  of  raw  undii- 
ciplined  militia  ?  If  the  garrison  was,  as  you  say,  *  sickly,  disgusted,  des 
titute  of  provisions,  and  ready  to  become  a  prey,'  was  it  not  prudent  to 
seize  that  opportunity,  and  put  the  nation  in  possession  of  so  important 
a  fortress,  at  so  small  an  expence  ?  So  that  if  you  will  not  allow  the  en- 
terprize  to  be,  as  we  think  it  was,  both  brave  ami  prudent,  ought  you 
not  at  least  to  grant  it  was  either  one  or  the  other  ?    But  is  there  no  merit 
on  this  score  in  the  people;  who,  though  at  first  so  greatly  divided,  as 
to  the  making  or  forbearing  the  attempt,  that  it  was  carried  in  the  af 
firmative,  by  the  small  majority  of  one  vote  only ;  yet  when  it  was  once 
resolved  on,  unanimously  prosecuted  the   design,   and  prepared  the 
means  with  the  greatest  zeal  and  diligence;  so  that  the  whole  equip 
ment  was  completely  ready  before  the  season  would  permit  the  execu 
tion  ?    Is  there  no  merit  of  praise  in  laying  and  executing  their  plan  so 
well,  that,  as  you  have  confessed,  not  a  single  part  of  it  failed  ?     If  the 
plan  was  destitute  of  '  propriety  and  wisdom/  would  it  not  have  re 
quired  the  sharp  acute  men  of  the  northern  latitude  to  execute  it,  that  by 
supplying  its  deficiencies  they  might  give  it  some  chance  of  success? 
But   if  such  'remarkably  silly,  simple,  blundering  mar-plans,'  AS  you 
say  we  are,  could  execute  this  plan,  so  that  not  a  single  part  of  it  failed, 
does  it  not  at  least  show  that  the  plan  itself  must  be  laid  with  some  '  wis 
dom  and  propriety  ?' — Is  there  no  merit  in  the  ardour  with  which  all  de 
grees  and  ranks  of  people  quitted  their  private  affairs,  and  ranged 
themselves  under  the  banners  of  their  king,  for  the  honour,  safety,  and 
advantage  of  their  countn  ?  Is  there  no  merit  in  the  profound  secrecy 
guarded  by  a  whole  people,  so  that  the  enemy  had  not  the  least  intelli 
gence  of  the  design,  till  they  saw  the  fleet  of  transports  cover  the  sea 
before  their  port  ? — Is  there  none  in  the  indefatigable  labour  the  troops 
went  through  during  the  siege,  performing  the  duty  both  of  men  and 
horses;   the  hardships  they  patiently  suffered  for  want  of  tents  and 
other  necessaries ;  the  readiness  with  which  they  learnt  to  move,  direct, 
and  manage  cannon,  raise  batteries,  and  form  approaches;  the  bravery 
with  which  they  sustained  sallies;  and  finally,  in  their  consenting  tc> 
stay  and  garrison  the  place  after  it  was  taken,  absent  from  their  busi 
ness  and  families,  till  troops  could  be  brought  from  England  for  that 
purpose,  though  they  undertook  the  service  on  a  promise  of  being  dif. 


NOTES. 


451 


charged  as  soon  as  it  was  over,  were  unprovided  for  so  long  an  ab-    PART  I. 

sence,  and  actually  suffered  ten  times  more  loss  by  mortal  sickness,  .^_  ^  _^_. 

through  want  of  necessaries,  than  they  suffered  from  the  arms  of  the 

enemy  ?  The  nation,  however,  had  a  sense  of  this  undertaking  different 

from  the  unkind  one  of  this  gentleman.     At  the  treaty  of  peace,  the 

possession  of  Louisbourg  was  found  of  great  advantage  to  our  affairs  in 

Europe;   and  if  the  brave  men  that  made  the  acquisition  for  us  were 

not  rewarded^  at  least  they  were  praised.     Envy  may  continue  awhile  to 

eaval  and  detract,  but  public  virtue  will  in  the  end  obtain  esteem  ;  and 

hoiu-st  impartiality  in  this  and  future  ages,  will  not  fail  doing  justice  to 

merit. 

"  Your  gentleman  writer  thus  decently  goes  on.  '  The  most  substantial 
men  of  most  of  the  provinces,  are  children  or  grandchildren  of  those 
that  came  here  at  the  king's  expence  ;  that  is,  thieves,  highwaymen, 
and  robbers.'  Being  probably  a  military  gentleman,  this,  and  therefore 
a  person  of  nice  honour,  if  any  one  should  tell  him  in  the  plainest  lan 
guage,  that  what  he  here  says  is  an  absolute  falsehood,  challenges  and 
cutting  of  throats  might  immediately  ensue.  I  shall  therefore  only  re 
fer  him  to  his  otvn  account  in  this  same  letter,  of  the  peopling  of  New-Eng 
land,  which  he  sa\s,  with  more  truth,  was  by  Puritans  \vho  fled  thither 
for  shelter  from  the  persecutions  of  Archbishop  Laud.  Is  there  not  a 
wide  difference  between  removing  to  a  distant  country  to  enjoy  the  ex 
ercise  of  religion,  according  to  a  man's  conscience,  and  his  being  trans 
ported  thither  by  a  law,  as  a  punishment  for  his  crimes  ?  This  contra 
diction  we  therefore  leave  wegtntieman  and  himself 'to  settle  as  well  as 
they  can  between  them.  One  would  think  from  nis  account,  that  the 
provinces  were  so  many  colonies  from  Newgate.  The  truth  is,  not 
only  Laud's  persecution,  but  the  other  public  troubles  in  the  following 
reigns,  induced  many  thousand  families  to  leave  England,  and  settle  in 
the  plantations.  During  the  predominance  of  the  parliament,  many 
royalists  removed  or  were  banished  to  Virginia  and  Barbadoes,  who  af 
terwards  spread  into  the  other  settlements  :  The  Catholics  sheltered 
themselves  in  Maryland.  At  the  restoration,  many  of  the  deprived  non 
conformist  ministers,  with  their  families,  friends  and  hearers,  went  over. 
Towards  the  end  of  Charles  the  Second's  reign,  and  during  James  the 
Second's,  the  Dissenters  again  flocked  into  America,  driven  by  persecu 
tion,  and  dreading  the  introduction  of  popery  at  home.  Then  the  high 
price  or  reward  of  labour  in  the  colonies,  and  want  of  artisans  there, 
drew  over  many,  as  well  as  the  occasion  of  commerce ;  and  when  once 
people  begin  to  migrate,  everyone  has  his  little  sphere  of  acquaintance 
and  connections,  which  he  draws  after  him,  by  invitation,  motives  of  in 
terest,  praising  his  new  settlement,  and  other  encouragements.  The 
'  most  substantial  men'  are  descendants  of  those  early  settlers ;  new 
comers  not  having  yet  had  time  to  raise  estates.  The  practice  of  send 
ing  convicts  thither,  is  modern  ;  and  the  same  indolence  of  temper  and 
habits  of  idleness  that  make  people  poor  and  tempt  them  to  steal  in 
England,  continue  with  them  when  they  are  sent  to  America,  and  must 
there  have  the  same  effects,  where  all  who  live  well,  owe  their  subsist 
ence  to  labour  and  business  ;  and  where  it  is  a  thousand  times  more  diffi 
cult  than  here,  to  acquire  wealth  without  industry.  Hence  the  instances 
of  transported  thieves  advancing  their  fortunes  in  the  colonies,  are  ex 
tremely  rare  ;  if  there  really  is  a  single  instance  of  it,  which  I  very  much 
doubt ;  but  of  their  being  advanced  there  to  the  gallows,  the  instances 
are  plenty.  Might  they  not  as  well  have  been  hanged  at  home  ? — \\Te 
call  Britain  the.  mother  country  ;  but  what  good  mother  besides,  would  in 
troduce  thieves  and  criminals  into  the  company  of  her  children,  to  cor 
rupt  and  disgrace  them  ? — And  how  cruel  is  it,  to  force,  by  the  high 
hand  of  power,  a  particular  country  of  your  subjects,  who  have  not  de 
served  such  usage,  to  receive  your  outcasts,  repealing  all  the  laws  they 


452 


JSOTES. 


PART  I.  make  to  prevent  their  admission,  and  then  reproach  them  with  the  do 
.  ^^  .  tested  mixture  you  have  made  :  *  The  emptying  their  jails  into  our  set 

tlements,5  says  a  writer  of  that  country,  *  is  an  insull  and  contempt,  the 
crudest  perhaps  that  ever  one  people  offered  another;  and  would  not 
be  equalled  even  by  emptying  their  jakes  on  our  tables.' 

"The  letter  I  have  been  considering,  Mr.  Chronicle,  is  followed  by 
another,  in  your  paper  of  Tuesday  the  17th  past,  said  to  br  from  an  officer 
•who  attended  Brigadier-general  Forbes,  in  his  march  from  Philadelphia  to 
fort  Du  Quesne;  but  written  probably  by  the  same  gi  ntleman  who  wrote 
the  former,  as  it  seems  calculated  to  raise  the  character  of  the  officers  of 
the  certain  northern  latitude,  at  the  expence  of  the  reputation  of  the  colo 
nies,  and  the  provincial  forces. — According  to  this  letter-writer,  if  the 
Pennsylvanians  granted  large  supplies,  and  raised  a  great  body  of  troops 
for  the  last  campaign,  it  was  not  obedience  to  his  majesty's  commands, 
signified  by  his  minister,  Mr.  Pitt,  zeal  for  the  king's  service,  or  even  a 
regard  for  their  own  safety  ;  but  it  was  owing  to  the  '  general's  proper 
management  of  the  Quakers,  and  other  parties  in  the  province.'  The 
withdrawing  of  the  Indians  from  the  French  interest  by  negotiating  a 
peace,  is  all  ascribed  to  the  general,  and  not  a  word  said  to  the  honour 
of  the  poor  Quakers,  who  first  set  those  negotiations  on  foot,  or  of 
honest  Frederick  Post,  that  compleated  them  with  so  much  ability  and 
success.  Even  the  little  merit  of  the  Assembly's  nuking  a  law  to  regu 
late  carriages,  is  imputed  to  the  general's  '  multitude  of  letters.'  Then 
he  tells  us,  '  innumerable  scouting  parties  had  been  sent  out  during  a 
long  period,  both  by  the  general  and  Col.  Bouquet,  towards  fort  Du 
Quesne,  to  catch  a  prisoner  if  possible,  for  intelligence,  but  never  got 
any.' — How  happened  that  ? — Why,  '  it  was  the  provincial  troops,  that 
were  constantly  employed  in  that  service, 'and  they,  it  seems,  never  do 
any  thing  they  are  ordered  to  do — That,  however,  one  would  think, 
might  be  easily  remedied,  by  sending  regulars  with  them,  who  of  course 
must  command  them,  and  may  see  that  they  do  their  duty-  Ab  /  The 
regulars  are  afraid  of  being  shot  by  the  provincials  in  a  panic — Then  send 
all  regulars. — Jlye ;  That  ivas  ivhat  the  colonel  resolved  upon. — 'Intelli 
gence  was  now  wanted,  (says  the  letter-writer)  colonel  Bouquet,  whose 
attention  to  business  was  [only]  very  considerable  [that  is,  not  quite  so 
great  as  the  general's,  for  he  was  not  of  the  northern  latitude]  was  deter  - 
mined  to  send  NO  MOIIE  provincials  a  scouting.' — And  how  did  he  exe 
cute  his  determination  ?  Why,  by  sending  '  Major  Grant  of  the  High 
landers,  with  seven  hundred  men,  three  hundred  of  them  Highlanders, 
THE  BEST  Americans,  Virginians,  and  Pt  nnsylvanians!' — N"  blundei- ih'is, 
in  our  writer;  but  a  misfortune ;  and  he  is  nevertheless  one  of  those 

*  acute  sharp'  men  who  are  'Jit  for  learning  /' — And  how  did  this  major 
and  seven  hundred  men  succeed  in  catching  the  prisoner? — Why,  their 

*  march  to  fort  Du  Quesne  was  so  conducted  the  surprize  was  cotnpleut.' — 
Perhaps  you  may  imagine,  gentle  reader,  that  this  was  a  surprize  of  the 
enemy. — No  such  matter.     They  knew  every  step  of  his  motions,  and 
had,  every  man  of  them,  left  their  fires  and  huts  in  the  fields,  and  re 
tired  into  the  fort. — But  the  major  and  his  700  men,  they  were  sur 
prized,-  first  to  find  no  body  there  at  night,  and  next  to  find  themselves 
surrounded  and  cut  to  pieces  in  the  morning;   two  or  three  hundred 
being  killed,  drowned,  or  taken  prisoners,  and  among  the  latter  the 
major  himself.     Those  who  escaped  were  also  surprized  at  their  own 
good   fortune;   and  the  whole  army  was  surprized  at  the  major's  bad 
management. — Thus  the  surprize  was  indeed  compleat ; — but  not  the  dis 
grace  ;   for  provincials  were  thereto  lay  the  blame  on.     The  misfortune 
(we  must  not  call  it  misconduct)  of  the  major  was  owing,  it  seems,  to  an 
un-named,  and  perhaps,  unknown   provincial  officer,  who,  it  is   said, 

*  disobeyed  his  orders  and  quited  his  post.'     Whence  a  formal  conclu 
sion  is  drawn,  'that  a  planter  is  not  to  be  taken  from  the  plough  and 
made  an  officer  in  a  day.' — Unhappy  provincials !    If  success  attends 


NOTES.  453 

where  you  are  joined  with  the  regulars,  they  claim  all  the  honour,  PART  I. 
though  not  a  tenth  part  of  your  number.  If  disgrace,  it  is  all  yours,  v_^»^  -^ . 
though  you  happen  to  be  but  a  small  purt  of  the  whole,  and  have  not 
»:he  command  ;  as  if  regulars  were  in  their  nature  invincible,  when  not 
mixed  with  provincials,  and  provincials  of  no  kind  of  value  without  re 
gulars!  Happy  is  it  for  you  that  you  were  neither  present  at  Preston 
Pans  nor  Fullurk,  at  the  faint  attempt  against  Rochtbrt,  the  rout  of  St. 
Cas,  or  the  hasty  retreat  from  Martinico.  Every  thing  that  went  wrong, 
or  did  not  go  right,  would  have  been  ascribed  to  you.  Our  commanders 
would  have  been  saved  the  labour  of  writing  long  apologies  for  their 
conduct.  It  might  have  been  sufficient  to  sa> ,  pi  ovincials  -were  with 
tor/ 

A  NEW-ENGLANDMAN." 
May  9,  1759. 


(NOTE  K.  p.  168.) 

WITH  respect  tothe  character  of  the  royal  governors,  See  Franklin's 
piece  on  the  Causes  of  the  American  Discontents,  Burke's  Speech  on 
Am.  Taxation,  and  most  of  the  English  Histories  passim,  in  which  our 
colonial  affairs  are  introduced.  The  royal  governors  were,  in  several 
instances,  detected  in  vhe  grossest  peculation,  and  almost  universally 
involved  themselves,  by  their  spirit  of  tyranny,  religious  bigotry,  or 
rapacity,  in  quarrels  with  the  provinces  over  which  they  were  placed. 
The  frequent  and  sudden  prorogation,  or  dissolution,  of  the  colonial 
assemblies,  by  which  they  vainly  endeavoured  to  worry  the  people  into 
submission,  was  one  of  the  causes  of  those  quarrels.  They  transmitted 
to  the  British  ministry,  accounts  of  their  provinces,  either  entirely 
false,  or  miserably  imperfect.  "  Governments,"  says  Smith,  the  histo 
rian  of  New  York,  addressing  the  earl  of  Halifax,  1756,  "  have  been 
too  often  bestowed  upon  men  of  mean  parts,  and  indigent  circumstances. 
The  former  were  incapable  of  the  task,  and  the  latter  too  deeply  en 
grossed  by  the  sordid  views  of  private  interest,  either  to  pursue  or 
study  our  common  weal.  The  worst  consequences  have  resulted  from 
this  measure,  &c.  All  attempts  for  conciliating  the  friendship  of  the 
Indians,  promoting  the  fur  trade,  securing  the  command  of  the  lakes, 
protecting  the  frontiers,  and  extending  our  possessions  far  into  the  in 
land  country,  have  too  often  given  place  to  party  projects  and  contracted 
schemes,  equally  useless  and  shameful.  If  the  governors  of  these  plan 
tations  had  formerly  been  animated  by  generous  and  extensive  views, 
the  long  projected  designs  of  our  common  enemy  might  have  been 
many  years  ago  supplanted  at  a  trifling  expense,"  &c.  I  should  sug 
gest  another  source  of  oppression  and  disaffection,  akin  to  that  of  the 
conduct  of  the  governors,  which  is  thus  stated  by  Stokes,  a  zealous 
royalist,  in  his  View  of  the  Constitution  of  the  British  Colonies  in  Ame 
rica,  (1  vol.  8vo.  Lond.  1784:)  "  There  was  a  fatal  practice,  from  the  first 
establishment,  which  greatly  weakened  the  king's  cause  in  all  the  Ame 
rican  colonies,  I  mean  the  bestowing  almost  every  lucrative  office  in 
America,  that  could  be  exercised  by  deputy,  on  some  person  residing 
in  Great  Britain,  who  employed  a  deputy,  with  a  slender  allowance,  to 
execute  the  office  for  them  :  this  deputy  had  neither  weight  in  the  pro 
vince,  nor  any  interest  in  the  government  under  which  he  lived,"  &c. 
The  altercations  between  Lord  Cornbury,  as  governor  of  New  Jer 
sey,  and  the  legislature  of  that  state,  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  may  be  cited  as  examples  of  the  treatment  to  which  the  colo- 


454  NOTES. 

PART  I.  nial  assemblies  were  exposed,  as  well  as  of  the  spirit  with  which  the 
^^•^^^  character  and  station  of  the  American  freeman  were  maintained.  Corn 
bury  attempted  encroachments  and  oppressions  ;  the  assembly  resiste< 
and  complained.  In  their  first  strong  remonstrance,  they  hold  this  Ian 
guage  :  "  Liberty  is  too  valuable  a  thing  to  be  ensily  parted  with  ;  anc 
when  such  mean  inducements  procure  such  violent  endeavours  to  tea" 
it  from  us,  we  must  take  leave  to  say,  they  have  neither  heads,  hearts, 
nor  souls,  that  are  not  moved  with  the  miseries  of  their  country,  and 
are  not  forward  with  their  utmost  power  lawfully  to  redress  them.  Wo 
conclude,  by  advising  the  governor  to  consider  what  it  is  that  princi 
pally  engages  the  affections  of  a  people,  and  he  will  find  no  other  arti 
fice  needful  than  to  let  them  be  unmolested  in  the  enjoyment  of  wha: 
belongs  to  them  of  right  ;  and  a  wise  man,  that  despises  not  his  own 
happiness,  will  earnestly  labour  to  regain  their  love." 

The  remonstrance,  which  ended  with  this  passage,  was  presented  in 
form  to  the  governor,  by  Samuel  Jennings,  the  speaker  of  the  house  of 
assembly.  Smith,  the  historian  of  New  Jersey,  gives  an  amusing  ac 
count  of  the  interview.* 

*'  Jennings  was  undaunted,  and  Lord  Cornbury,  on  his  part,  exacted 
the  utmost  decorum  ;  while,  as  speaker,  he  was  delivering  the  remon 
strance,  the  latter  frequently  interrupted  him  with  a  stop,  -what's  that  - 
&c.  at  the  same  time  putting  on  a  countenance  of  authority  and  sterr- 
ness,  with  intention  to  confound  him.  With  due  submission,  yet  h'rrr- 
ness,  whenever  interrupted,  he  calmly  desired  leave  to  read  the  pas 
sages  over  again,  and  did  it  with  an  additional  emphasis  upon  thosj 
most  complaining;  so  that,  on  the  second  reading,  they  became  more 
observable  than  before  ;  he  at  length  got  through  ;  when  the  governor 
told  the  house  to  attend  him  again  on  Saturday  next,  at  11  o'clock,  to 
receive  his  answer.  After  the  house  was  gone,  Cornbury,  with  some 
emotion,  told  those  with  him,  that  Jennings  had  impudence  enough  to  face 


The  governor  produced  his  answer,  after  some  days  ;  and,  as  he  as 
cribed  the  resistance  which  he  experienced,  to  the  Quakers,  he  assailed 
them  with  a  grossness  of  invective,  which  that  society  could  hardly 
have  expected  to  hear  from  any  mouth,  and  much  less  from  that  of  a 
chief  magistrate,  bred  at  the  court  of  St.  James.  "  I  am  of  opinion," 
said  his  lordship,  "that  nothing  has  hindered  the  vengeance  of  just 
heaven  from  falling  on  this  province  long  ago,  but  the  infinite  mercy, 
goodness,  long  suffering,  and  forbearance  of  Almighty  God,  who  has 
been  abundantly  provoked  by  the  repeated  crying  sins  of  a  perverse 
generation  among  us,  and  more  especially  by  the  dangerous  and  abomi 
nable  doctrines,  and  the  ivicked  lives  and  practices  of  a  number  of  peo 
ple  ;  some  of  whom,  under  the  pretended  name  of  Christians,  have 
dared  to  deny  the  very  essence  and  being  of  the  Saviour  of  the  -world. 

"  We  find,  by  woful  experience,  that  there  are  many  men  who  have 
been  permitted  to  serve  on  juries  here,  who  have  no  regard  for  the 
oaths  they  take,  especially  among  a  sort  of  people,  who,  under  a  pretence 
of  conscience,  refuse  to  take  an  oath  ;  and  yet  many  of  them,  under  the 
cloak  of  a  very  solemn  affirmation,  dare  to  commit  the  greatest  enor 
mities,  especially  if  it  be  to  serve  a  friend,  as  they  call  him. 

*  See  his  "  History  of  the  Colony  of  New  Jersey,  to  the  year  1721," 
for  the  entertaining  details  of  the  controversy  between  the  governor 
and  the  assembly.  The  early  history  of  this  state  is  as  edifying  as  that 
of  any  other  of  our  confederacy.  It  yields  the  most  animating  lessons 
of  energetic  freedom  and  philanthropic  liberality.  It  deserves  to  be 
more  read  than  I  presume  it  to  be,  and  to  be  better  digested  than  it  is 
in  the  work  of  Smith. 


NOTES, 


455 


.  "  Of  all  the  people  in  the  world,  the  Quakers  ought  to  be  the  last  to   PART  I. 
complain  of  the  hardships  of  travelling  a  few  miles,  who  never  repine  -^-T~^- 
at  the  trouble  and  charges  of  travelling  several  hundred  miles  to  a  ' 
yearly  meeting,  where  it  is  evidently  known,  that  nothing  was  ever  done  for 
the  good  of  the  country,  but,  on  the  contrary,  continual  contrivances  are  car 
ried  on  for  the  undermining  of  the  government,  both  in  church  and  state." 

The  courteous  governor  railed  passionately  at  the  assembly  itself; 
gave  them  the  lie  direct,  and  signalized  the  speaker,  and  another  mem 
ber,  as  men  "  known  neither  to  have  good  morals,  nor  good  principles :" 
"  mean  and  scandalous,  seditious,  fraudulent,  &c." — The  assembly  did 
not  omit  to  reply,  and  to  repay  his  excellency  without  stint.  It  was  a 
noble  spirit  of  independence,  that,  uniNv  the  circumstances  of  the  co 
lony  at  that  period,  dictated  such  language  as  the  following ;  which, 
strong  as  it  is,  does  not  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  the  keenness  and 
energy  of  the  whole  address. 

"  We  are  apt  to  believe,  upon  the  credit  of  your  excellency's  asser 
tion,  that  there  may  be  a  number  of  people  in  this  province,  who  will 
never  live  quietly  under  any  government,  nor  suffer  their  neighbours 
to  enjoy  any  peace,  quiet,  nor  happiness,  if  they  can  help  it;  such  peo 
ple  are  pests  in  all  governments;  have  ever  been  so  in  this;  and  -we 
know  of  none  who  can  lay  a  fairer  claim  to  these  characters  than  many  of 
your  excellency's  favourites."  "  Our  juries  here  are  not  so  learned  or 
rich  as,  perhaps,  they  are  in  England  ;  but  we  doubt  not,  full  as  honest." 
"  Notwithstanding  those  soft,  cool,  and  considerate  ttrms,  of  malicious, 
scandalous,  and  frivolous,  with  which  your  excellency  vouchsafes  to 
treat  the  assembly  of  this  province,  they  are  of  opinion,  that  no  judi 
cious  or  impartial  man  will  think  it  reasonable  that  the  inhabitants  of 
one  province  should  go  into  another  to  have  their  wills  proved." 

"  It  is  the  general  assembly  of  the  province  of  New  Jersey  that  com 
plains,  and  not  the  Quakers,  with  whose  persons  (considered  as  Qua 
kers)  or  meetings,  we  have  nothing  to  do,  nor  are  we  concerned  in  what 
your  excellency  says  against  them  ;  they,  perhaps,  will  think  themselves 
obliged  to  vindicate  their  meetings  from  the  aspersions  which  your  ex 
cellency  so  liberally  bestows  upon  them,  and  evince  to  the  world  how 
void  of  rashness  and  ^consideration  your  excellency's  expressions  are, 
and  how  becoming  it  is  for  the  governor  of  a  province  to  enter  the  lists  of  con 
troversy,  with  a  people  who  thought  themselves  entitled  to  his  protection  of 
them  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  religious  liberties  ;  those  of  them  who  are 
members  of  this  house,  have  begged  leave,  in  behalf  of  themselves  and 
friends,  to  tell  the  governor,  they  must  answer  him  in  the  words  of 
Nehemiah  to  Sanbal'lat,  contained  in  the  8th  verse  of  the  6th  chapter  of 
Nehemiah,  viz.  *  There  are  no  such  things  as  thou  sayest,  but  thoufeignest 
them  out  of  thine  own  heart? 

"  These  bold  accusers  of  your  excellency,  the  members  of  this  assem 
bly,  are  a  sort  of  creatures  called  honest  men,  just  to  the  trust  reposed  in 
them  by  the  country,  who  will  not  suffer  their  liberties  and  properties 
to  be  torn  from  them  by  anv  man,  how  great  soever,  if  they  can  hinder 
it." 


(NOTE  L.  p.  187.) 

LORD  George  Germain  is  said  to  have  left  the  ministry,  still  persuad 
ed  (after  the  capture  of  Cornwallis),  of  the  practicability  of  subduing 
America  in  another  campaign.  General  Lloyd,  the  great  tactician,  had 
suggested  a  plan  of  operations,  by  which  this  might  be  easily  done ! 
The  deceptive  assurances  quoted  in  the  text,  from  lord  George  Ger- 


466  NOTES, 

PART  I.  main's  speech,  were  rivalled  in  the  speeches  of  the  other  members  o; 
._^_  -^.  the  government.  The  following  extracts  from  the  debates  of  the 
^  House  of  Lords,  of  1778,  belong  to  the  same  blind  system  of  ministerial 
tactics. 

"The  Earl  of  Suffolk  said,  that  it  had  been  strongly  relied  upon  in 
debate,  that  America  would  spurn  the  offers  held  out  in  those  bilk 
(American  conciliatory  bills).  For  his  part  he  was  of  a  very  different 
opinion.  He  had  the  most  undoubted  information,  that  the  Americans 
were  in  the  greatest  distress,  and  would  therefore  embrace  any  reason 
able  propositions  of  peace  and  civil  security." 

"Viscount  Weymouth  said — with  regard  to  what  the  Duke  (of  Graf 
ton)  had  thrown  out  respecting  a  treaty  between  France  and  America, 
the  most  convincing  way  of  reply  would  be  not  to  argue  upon  it,  but  to 
come  immediately  to  the  point,  for  which  reason  he  would  fullv  and 
fairly  speak  to  it ;  he  did  therefore  in  the  plainest  and  most  precise 
manner,  assure  their  lordships,  that  he  knew  not  of  any  such  treatu  having 
been  signed  or  entered  into,  between  the  court  of  France  and  the  deputies  oj 
CongrrsN  and  he  hoped  their  lordships  would  not  fail  to  remember,  that  it  was 
on  the  5th  of  March  (1778),  likewise,  that  he-  stood  up  in  his  place,  and 
declared  he  knew  nothing  of  any  such  thing,  nor  had  any  authentic  in 
formation  of  any  such  treaty  being  either  in  contemplation  or  exist 
ence."* 


(NOTE  M.  p.  191.) 

THE  charge  of  cowardice  against  the  Americans  was  discussed,  pro 
and  con,  with  considerable  earnestness,  in  both  houses  of  parliament. 
With  a  view  to  the  amusement  of  the  American  reader,  and  the  more 
complete  development  of  my  subject,  I  propose  to  insert  here  a  collec 
tion  of  loose  quotations  from  the  debates  of  that  body,  respecting  this  to 
pic  of  cowardice,  and  the  employment  of  Indians  and  European  foreign 
ers  in  the  British  service. 

Lord  Chat  ham  said  (1777)  —  "Ministers  have  been  in  error;  experience 
has  proved  it;  but  what  is  worse,  they  continue  in  it.  They  told  you  in 
the  beginning  that  15,000  men  would  traverse  America  without  scarcely 
the  appearance  of  interruption  ;  two  campaigns  have  passed  since  they 
gave  us  this  assurance  ;  treble  that  number  has  been  employed  ;  and 
one  of  your  armies,  which  composed  two  thirds  of  the  force  by  which 
America  was  to  be  subdued,  has  been  totally  destroyed,  and  is  now  led 
captive  through  those  provinces  you  call  rebellious.  Those  men  whom 
you  call  cowards,  poltroons,  runaways,  and  knaves,  are  become  victori 
ous  ovi-r  your  veieran  troops  ;  and  in  the  midst  of  victory,  and  flush  of 
conquest,  have  set  ministers  the  example  of  moderation  and  of  magna 
nimity  worthy  imitation. 

"  My  lords,  no  time  should  be  lost,  which  may  promise  to  improve  this 
disposition  in  America  ;  unless,  by  an  obstinacy  founded  in  madness,  we 
wish  to  stifle  tho?e  embers  of  affection,  which,  after  all  our  savage  treat 
ment,  do  not  seem  as  yet  to  be  entirely  extinguished.  While,  on  one 
side,  we  must  lament  the  unhappy  fate  of  that  spirited  officer,  Mr.  Bur- 
goyne,  and  the  gallant  troops  under  his  command,  who  were  sacrificed 
to  the  wanton  temerity  and  ignorance  of  ministers,  we  are  as  strongly 
r  lied,  on  the  other,  to  admire  and  applaud  the  generous,  magnani- 


*  The  Treaty  of  Alliance  was  signed  a  month  previous  —  the  6th  of 
February,  1788, 


NOTES, 


457 


mous  conduct,  the  noble  friendship,  brotherly  affection,  and  humanity   PART  I. 

of  the  victors,  who,  condescending1  to  impute  the  horrid  orders  of  mas-  y^-v^^/ 

sacre  and  devastation  to  their  true  authors,  supposed  that,  as  soldiers 

and  Englishmen,  those  cruel  excesses  could  not  have  originated  with, 

the  general,  nor  were  consonant  to  the  brave  and  humane  spirit  of  a 

British  soldier,  if  not  compelled  to  it  as  an  act  of  duty.     They  traced 

the  first  cause  of  these  diabolical  orders  to  their  source,  and  by  that 

wise  and  generous  interpretation,  granted  their  professed  destroyers 

terms  of  capitulation,  which  they  could  only  be  entitled  to  as  the  makers 

of  fair  and  honourable  war." 

"  His  grace,  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  turned  his  attention  (1775)  to  what 
a  noble  earl  (Sandwich),  early  in  the  debate,  had  said  respecting  the 
cowardice  of  the  Americans.  He  begged  leave  to  remind  his  lordship, 
that  he  did  not  speak  conditionally ;  there  was  no  if  at  the  time  the 
charge  was  made,  it  was  a  positive  one,  and  could  not  now  be  explained 
away  by  conditions  introduced  for  the  first  time  ;  yet,  however  positive 
the  noble  lord  might  have  been  then,  or  guarded  he  might  be  now,  he 
could  inform  his  lordship  that  the  New  England  people  were  brave  ; 
that  they  had  proved  it ;  that  the  general  who  had  commanded  at  Bun 
ker's  Hill  had  confessed  it ;  that  another  (General  Burgoyne),  no  less 
celebrated  for  his  talents  than  zeal  for  the  cause,  had  confirmed  it ;  that 
an  officer,  a  particular  friend  of  his,  on  the  spot  had  united  in  the  same 
opinion." 

Col.  Ban  e  said — "  The  Americans  have  been  branded  in  this  house 
with  every  opprobrious  epithet  that  meanness  could  invent— termed 
cowardly  and  inhuman.  Let  us  mark  the  proof.  They  have  obliged 
as  brave  a  general  as  ever  commanded  a  body  of  British  troops  to  sur 
render;  such  is  their  cowardice !  And,  instead  of  throwing  chains  upon 
these  troops,  they  have  nobly  given  them  their  freedom  ;  such  is  their 
inhumanity !  I  only  wish,  from  this  single  circumstance,  to  draw  this  fair 
conclusion,  that,  instead  of  a  set  of  lawless,  desperate  adventurers,  we  find 
them,  by  experience,  to  be  men  of  the  most  exalted  sentiments;  in 
spired  by  that  genius  of  liberty  which  is  the  noblest  emotion  of  the 
heart,  which  it  is  impossible  to  conquer,  impracticable  to  dismiss." 

Mr.  Burke  observed — "The  Americans  had  been  always  represented 
as  cowards;  this  was  far  from  being  true  ;  and  he  appealed  to  the  con 
duct  of  Arnold  and  Gates  towards  General  Burgoyne,  as  a  striking 
proof  of  their  bravery.  Our  army  was  totally  at  their  mercy.  We  had 
employed  the  savages  to  butcher  them,  their  wives,  their  aged  parents, 
and  their  children  ;  and  yet,  generous  to  the  last  degree,  they  gave  our 
men  leave  to  depart  on  their  parole,  never  more  to  bear  arms  against 
North  America.  Bravery  and  cowardice  could  never  inhabit  the  same 
bosom  ;  generosity,  valour,  and  humanity  are  ever  inseparable.  Poor 
indeed  the  Americans  were,  but  in  that  consists  their  greatest  strength. 
Sixty  thousand  men  had  fallen  at  the  feet  of  their  magnanimous,  because 
voluntary  poverty." 

The  Duke  of  Richmond  said  (1775)— "The  transportation  of  20,000 
Russians  would  cost  government  500,000/.  An  equal  number  of 
British  troops  should  be  sent  at  the  same  period,  or  ministry  might 
find,  that  the  Russians,  instead  of  conquering  America  for  England, 
would  take  possession  of  it  themselves,  in  virtue  of  that  law  of  conquest, 
acknowledged  by  all  freebooters.  That  the  Russians  would  gladly  emi 
grate  to  America,  no  person  could  doubt,  who  was  in  the  smallest  de 
gree  acquainted  with  the  dispositions  of  those  people.  Shoals  of  Cos 
sacks  were  continually  deserting  their  country,  to  seek  more  comforta 
ble  settlements  in  the  north  of  China.  Seventy  thousand  of  these  Cos 
sacks  proceeding  on  such  a  plan,  had  lately  bidden  adieu  to  the  Rus 
sian  empire.  It  could  not,  therefore,  be  imagined,  that  twenty  thou 
sand  Russians  would  have  the  least  objection  to  be  sent,  free  of  expense, 
YOT,  I.— 3  M 


458  NOTES. 

PART  I.   to  America;  but  there  was  much  reason  to  suspect,  that,  when  there, 
V^-v^/  they  might  think  the  advantages  resulting  from  submitting  to  the  Ame 
rican  congress  preferrable  to  those  they  could  derive  from  defendine 
the  measures  of  a  British  parliament. 

The  Earl  of  Shelburne,  (1775)— With  respect  to  the  20,000  Rus 
sians,  his  lordship  addressed  the  ministers  in  the  following  terms 
There  are  powers  in  Europe  who  will  not  suffer  such  a  body  of 
Russians  to  be  transported  to  America.  I  speak  from  information. 
The  ministers  know  what  1  mean.  Some  power  has  already  interfered 
to  stop  the  success  of  the  Russian  negotiation.  As  for  expecting  neu 
trality  from  France,  that  was  idle. 

The  Earl  of  Sandwich  said  (1775) — "If  Russian  auxiliaries  were  ne 
cessary  in  the  former  war,  as  he  was  convinced  they  were,  they  might 
be  so  now,  they  might  be  so  on  any  future  occasion." 

The  Earl  of  Chatham  said  (1777) — "Your  ministers  have  gone  to  Ger 
many  ;  they  have  sought  the  alliance  and  assistance  of  every  pitiful, 
beggarly,  insignificant,  paltry  prince,  to  cut  the  throats  of  their  legal, 
brave,  and  injured  brethren  in  America.  They  have  entered  into  mer 
cenary  treaties  with  those  human  butchers,  for  the  purchase  and  sale 
of  human  blood.  But,  my  lords,  this  is  not  all ;  they  have  entered  into 
other  treaties.  The}'  have  let  the  savages  of  America  loose  upon  their 
innocent,  unoffending  brethren;  loose  upon  the  weak,  the  aged,  and 
defenceless ;  on  old  men,  women,  and  children  ;  on  the  very  babes 
upon  the  breast;  to  be  cut,  mangled,  sacrificed,  broiled,  roasted;  nay, 
to  be  literally  eat.  These,  my  lord,  are  the  allies  Great  Britain  now 
has;  carnage,  desolation,  and  destruction,  wherever  her  arms  are  car 
ried,  is  her  newly  adopted  mode  of  making  war.  Our  ministers  have 
made  alliances  at  the  German  shambles ;  and  with  the  barbarians  oi 
America,  with  the  merciless  torturers  of  their  species;  where  they  will 
next  apply,  I  cannot  tell  Was  it  by  setting  loose  the  savages  of  Ame 
rica,  to  imbrue  their  hands  in  the  blood  of  our  enemies,  that  the  duties 
of  the  soldier,  the  citizen,  and  the  man,  came  to  be  united  ?  Is  this  ho 
nourable  warfare,  my  lords  ?  Does  it  correspond  with  the  language  oi 
the  poet  ? — 'The  pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  glorious  war,  that 
make  ambition  virtue.'  " 

The  Duke  of  Richmond  said  (Nov.  18,  1777) — "  But,  my  lords,  I  wish 
you  to  turn  your  eyes  to  another  part  of  this  business.  I  mean  the 
dreadful  inhumanity  with  which  this  war  is  carried  on ;  shocking,  be 
yond  description,  to  every  feeling  of  a  Christian,  or  of  a  man.  When 
we  have  heard  of  the  cruelties  of  other  civil  wars,  we  used  to  rejoice, 
not  to  have  the  age,  or  the  country  we  lived  in,  the  scene  of  such  mi 
sery  ;  but,  to  see  England,  formerly  famous  for  humanity,  coolly 
suffering  the  worst  of  barbarities  to  be  exercised  on  her  fellow  subjects, 
and  appearing  untouched  by  the  woes  she  causes,  because  they  are  at 
a  distance,  and  she  does  not  experience  any  of  them  herself,  must  be- 
truly  mortifying  to  any  man  who  is  in  the  smallest  degree  possessed  oi 
national  pride.  If  ever  any  nation  shall  deserve  to  draw  down  on  hei 
the  Divine  vengeance  of  her  sins,  it  will  be  this,  if  she  suffers  such  hor 
rid  war  to  continue.  To  me,  who  think  we  have  been  originally  in  the 
wrong,  it  appears  doubly  unpardonable  :  but  even  supposing  we  were 
right,  it  is  certainly  we  who  produce  the  war ;  and  I  do  not  think  anv 
consideration  of  dominion  or  empire  sufficient  to  warrant  the  sacrifices 
we  make  to  it.  The  best  rights  may  be  bought  too  dear ;  nor  are  all 
means  justifiable  in  attaining  them.  To  arm  negro  slaves  against  their 
masters,  to  arm  savages,  who  we  know  will  put  their  prisoners  to  death 
in  the  most  cruel  tortures,  and  literally  eat  them,  is  not,  in  my  opinion, 
a  fair  war  against  fellow  subjects.  When  we  are  unfortunately  obliged 
to  war  with  other  nations,  mutual  esteem  soon  takes  place  between  the 
•voops,  and  reciprocal  humanity  prevails,  which  greatly  alleviates  the 


NOTES.  459 

too  many  miseries  of  all  wars;  but,  in  the  present  contest,  every  mean  PART  I. 
artifice  has  been  used,  to  encourage  the  soldiery  to  act  with  asperity,  s^-v~^^ 
or  alacrity,  as  it  is  now  the  fashion  to  call  it. 

"  Instead  of  taking  prudent  measures  to' restrain  the  military  within  the 
closest  bounds  of  discipline  ;  instead  of  making  them  sensible,  that,  as 
:hey  were  to  act  against  their  countrymen,  every  possible  means  of  saving 
their  lives,  and  sparing  their  property,  should  be  used,  and  every  de 
gree  of  compassion  shown  to  men  who  only  erred  from  mistaken  notions, 
and  were  still  to  be  considered  as  subjects  of  the  same  king, — they  have 
been  encouraged,  by  authority,  to  look  upon  their  opponents  as  cow 
ards,  traitors,  rebels,  and  every  thing  that  is  vile ;  and  their  property 
has  been,  by  law,  declared  lawful  plunder.  The  natural  effects  have 
followed.  A  military  thus  let  loose,  or  rather  thus  set  on,  have  given 
vent  to  that  barbarity  which  degrades  human  nature,  and  a  total  want 
of  discipline  and  good  order  is  said  to  prevail." 

The  Earl  of  Suffolk  said  (Nov.  18,  1777)— The  noble  earl,  the  Earl 
of  Chatham,  with  all  that  force  of  oratory  for  which  he  is  so  conspicu 
ous,  has  charged  administration  as  if  guilty  of  the  most  heinous  crime, 
in  employing  Indians  in  General  Burgoyne's  army  ;  for  my  part,  whe 
ther  foreigners  or  Indians,  which  the  noble  lord  has  described  by  the 
appellation  of  savages,  I  shall  ever  think  it  justifiable  to  exert  every 
means  in  our  power  to  repel  the  attempts  of  our  rebellious  subjects. 
The  congress  endeavoured  to  bring  the  Indians  over  to  their  side ;  and 
;f  we  had  not  employed  them,  they  would  most  certainly  have  acted 
against  us ;  and  I  do  freely  confess,  I  think  it  was  both  a  wise  and  ne 
cessary  measure,  as  I  am  clearly  of  opinion,  that  -we  are  fully  justified  in 
rising  every  means  which  God  and  nature  has  put  into  our  hands.  I  think 
it  was  a  very  wise  and  necessary  step,  on  many  accounts;  nor  can  I 
ever  be  persuaded,  whoever  was  the  adviser,  but  his  conduct  will 
stand  the  full  test  of  public  enquiry." 

Lord  Lyttleton  said,  (Dec.  5,  1777,)  "  he  was  much  astonished  at 
the  great  parade  the  noble-  earl  had  made  respecting  the  tomahawk  and 
scalping  knife  :  was  an  Indian's  knife  a  more  dreadful  weapon  than  an 
Englishman's  bayonet?  In  the  present  war,  the  chief  of  the  blood  that 
had  been  shed,  was  shed  by  the  point  of  the  bayonet ;  yet,  who  talked 
of  the  bayonet  as  a  savage  instrument  of  war  r" 

The  earl  of  Dunmore  declared,  (Dec.  5,  1777,)  that  "  the  Virgini 
ans  finding  themselves  disappointed  in  obtaining  the  aid  of  the  Indians, 
had  dresstd  up  some  of  tlieir  own  people  like  the  Indians,  with  a  view  to 
terrify  the  forces  under  him  ;  and  his  lordship  declared,  he  heartih  wish 
ed  more  Indians  were  employed  ;  that  they  were  by  no  means  a  cruel 
people  f  that  they  never  exercised  the  scalping  knife,  or  were  guilty  of 
a  barbarity,  but  by  way  of  striking  terror  into  their  enemies,  and  by 
that  means  putting  an  end  to  the  further  effusion  of  blood*9 

Mr.  Burke  said  (1778) — "The  savages  were  now  only  formidable 
from  their  cruelty  ;  and  to  emplo}  them  was  merely  to  be  cruel  our 
selves  in  their  persons :  and  thus,  without  even  the  lure  of  any  essen 
tial  service,  to  become  chargeable  with  all  the  odious  and  impotent 
barbarities  which  they  would  inevitably  commit,  whenever  they  were 
•ailed  into  action. 

"  No  proof  whatever  had  been  given  of  the  Americans  having  at 
tempted  an  offensive  alliance  with  any  one  tribe  of  savage  Indians. 
Whereas  the  imperfect  papers  already  before  the  house  demonstrated, 
that  the  king's  ministers  had  negotiate*',  and  obtained  such  alliances 
from  one  end  of  the  continent  of  America  to  the  other.  That  the 
Americans  had  actually  made  a  treaty  on  the  footing  of  neutrality  with 
the  famous  Five  Nations,  which  the  ministers  had  bribed  them  to  vio 
late,  and  to  act  offensively  against  the  colonies.  That  i.o  attempt  had 
been  made  in  a  single  instance  on  the  part  of  the  king's  ministers,  to 


NOTES. 

PART  I.  procure  a  neutrality  ;  and,  that  if  the  fact  had  been,  (\vhat  he  denied  it 
Sa^V*^/  t(>  be,}  that  the  Americans  had  actually  employed  those  savages  yet  the  dif 
ference  of  employing  them  against  armed  and  trained  soldiers,  embodied  ami 
encamped,  and  employing  them  against  the  unarmed  and  defenceless  men, 
•women,  and  children,  in  the  country,  -widely  dispersed  in  their  habitations, 
ivas  manifest ;  and  left  those  ivho  attempted  so  inhuman  and  unequal  a  re 
taliation,  without  a  possibility  of  excuse" 


(NOTE  N.    p.  211.) 

WHOEVER  has  read  the  dissertation  of  Talleyrand,  upon  the  advan 
tage  of  forming  colonial  establishments  for  the  French,  after  their  late 
revolution,  will  be  at  once  aware  of  the  acknowledgments  which  Eng 
land  owes  to  the  first  emigrants,  who  prepared  this  continent  for  the 
reception  of  that  portion  of  her  population,  whom  she  could  not  retain 
with  safety,  or  who  could  not  exist  with  comfort  or  freedom,  at  home. 
The  enlightened  author  of  the  European  settlements  in  America  readily 
discerned  and  recognized  the  bench' t.  "  In  the  various  changes  which 
our  religion  and  government  have  undergone,  which  have  in  their  turns 
rendered  every  sort  of  party  or  religion  obnoxious  to  the  reigning 
powers,  this  American  asylum,  open  in  the  hottest  times  of  our  perse 
cutions,  has  proved  of  infinite  service,  not  only  to  the  present  peace  of 
England,  but  to  the  prosperity  of  its  commerce,  and  the  establishment 
of  its  power." 

Dr.  Davenant  had  taken  a  similar  view  of  the  subject  in  his  Tract  on 
the  Plantation  Trade. 

"  Such  as  found  themselves  disturbed  and  uneasy  at  home,  if  they 
could  have  found  no  other  retreat,  must  have  gone  to  the  Hans  towns, 
Switzerland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  or  Holland,  (as  many  did  before 
the  plantations  flourished,  to  our  great  detriment,)  and  they  who  had 
thus  retired  to  the  European  countries,  must  have  been  forever  lost 
to  England. 

"  But  Providence,  which  contrives  better  for  us  than  we  can  do  for 
ourselves,  has  offered  in  the  new  world,  a  place  of  refuge  for  these, 
peradventure,  mistaken  and  misled  people,  where,  (as  shall  be  shown 
by  and  by,)  their  labour  and  industry  is  more  useful  to  their  mother 
kingdom,  than  if  they  had  continued  among  us. 

"  And  as  to  malcontents  in  the  state,  perhaps  it  is  for  the  public  safety, 
that  there  should  always  be  such  an  outlet  or  issue  for  the  ill  humours, 
which,  from  time  to  time  are  engendered  in  the  body  politic." 


(NOTE  O.   p.  219.) 

AT  the  instigation  of  Franklin,  a  society  was  instituted  in  PhiladeJ- 
phia,  in  the  year  1743,  which  took  the  name  of  The  American  Philoso 
phical  Society.  It  pursued,  modestly  and  privately,  for  the  improvement 
of  the  members,  of  whom  Franklin  and  Ilittenhouse  were  the  most 
active  and  distinguished,  enquiries  into  most  branches  of  physical  sci 
ence.  In  1766,  another  society  was  formed  in  the  same  city,  with  the 
title  of  The  American  Society  for  promoting  and  propagating  useful 
knowledge.  It  was  composed  of  unpretending  men  of  all  professions, 
anxious  to  increase  the  stock  of  their  own  information,  and  to  be  in- 


NOTES; 


461 


strumental  in  enlarging  that  of  their  country.  The  test  which  they  PART  I. 
established,  does  them  the  highest  honour,  for  the  liberality  and  purity  \^~v^>^, 
of  the  principles  of  which  it  enacted  the  acknowledgment.  They 
confined  themselves  to  the  discussion  of  practical  questions,  and  the 
investigation  of  matters  of  immediate  utility.  The  perusal  of  their 
Minutes  must  inspire  every  unprejudiced  person  with  a  high  idea  of 
their  intelligence  and  zeal ;  1  might  say,  with  admiration,  when  the 
range  of  their  study  and  research,  is  considered  in  connection  with  the 
attention  and  drudgery,  required  by  the  active  professions,  in  which 
they  were  universally  engaged  Points  of  social  economy  and  general 
politics  were  often  discussed  at  their  sittings,  and  determined  upon 
the  broadest  principles  of  reason  and  humanity.  The  following  ques 
tion,  for  example,  was  taken  up  by  them  on  the  3d  September,  1762, 
"  Is  it  good  policy  to  admit  the  importation  of  negroes  into  America  r" 
Their  views  of  the  subject  were  in  conformity  with  the  true  theory  of 
national  welfare  and  moral  obligation. 

They  could  show,  in  the  list  of  their  foreign  correspondents,  who  did 
justice  to  their  enlightened  character  and  benevolent  aims,  British  phi 
lanthropists  and  statesmen  of  the  first  rank.  1  might  name  Sir  George 
Saville,  as  one  of  the  several  distinguished  whigs  with  whom  they  car 
ried  on  a  commerce  of  enquiry  and  speculation,  creditable  to  the  sense, 
patriotism,  and  catholic  spirit  of  both  parties. 

The  two  Philadelphia  associations  were  amalgamated  by  common 
consent  in  1769  :  and,  in  1780,  incorporated,  as  the  American  Philoso 
phical  Society,  by  an  act  of  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature. 

I  have  admitted  by  implication  in  the  text,  to  give  greater  force  to  the 
charge  of  illiberality  against  the  Reviewers,  that  the  Transactions  of  the 
present  insulate  are  not  of  much  intrinsic  worth.  They  deserve,  how 
ever,  a  higher  character;  and  have  never  been  decried  any  where  but 
in  Great  Britain.  The  astronomical  papers  of  the  first  volume  drew 
lofty  compliments  and  eager  enquiries,  from  several  of  the  most  cele 
brated  savans  of  Europe.  Dr.  Maskelyne  bore,  in  letters  preserved  in 
the  records  of  the  society,  the  strongest  testimony  to  the  genius  of 
Kittenhouse,  and  to  the  merit  of  his  Observations  on  the  Transit  of 
Venus,  which  were  republished  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  So 
ciety.  1  happen  to  have  now  under  my  eyes,  a  communication  to  the 
American  Society,  from  Zach,  Director  of  the  Observatory  of  Saxe 
Gotha,  and  an  eminent  astronomer;  in  which  compliments  are  paid  to 
its  labours,  indicating  a  sense  of  their  value,  somewhat  different  from 
that  of  the  Edinburgh  Review.  A  short,  extract  from  Dr.  Zach's  com 
munication  may  not  be  unacceptable  here. 

"  Last  year  I  received  the  3d.  vol.  of  the  Transactions  of  the  A.  P. 
Soc.,  which  I  perused  with  great  satisfaction.  The  observation  of  the 
annular  eclipse  of  the  sun,  April  3,  1791,  made  at  Philadelphia  by  Dr. 
Rittenhouse,  has  given  me  great  pleasure,  and  was  of  very  great  use 
in  ascertaining  the  true  diameters  of  the  O  and  the  Moon;  and  also 
of  thetn/facfen  and  irradiation  of  light  several  astronomers  of  Europe 
have  inferred  by  it  very  satisfactory  results  ;  so  has  the  celebrated 
French  astronomer,  M.  de  la  Lande  found,  that  the  observed  duration  of 
the  ring  4'  17"  agrees  perfectly  well,  with  his  diameter  Q  <£  ,  assumed 
in  his  Astronomical  Tables,  (iii.  edit.  1792.) 

The  American  Philosophical  Society  has  always  been  more  studious 
of  doing  good  within  itself,  than  ambitious  of  publishing  volumes  for 
the  approbation  of  the  world.  A  much  more  favourable  idea  of  its  indus 
try,  learning,  and  usefulness,  is  conveyed  by  the  private  records  of  its 
proceedings,  than  by  the  six  quartos  of  its  Transactions,  reputable  as 
these  are,  and  must  be  confessed  to  be,  when  impartially  considered. 
It  was  early  marked  by  public  spirited  designs.  Witness  the  appoint 
ment  in  1763,  of  committees  of  its  members  to  make,  in  different 


462  NOTE-S. 

PART  I.  places,  observations  on  that  rare  phenomenon,  the  transit  of  Venus 
V^v'x^  over  the  Sun's  Disk.  The  expense  of  this  undertaking1  it  defrayed, 
though  possessed,  as  at  present,  of  no  other  regular  funds  than  those  aris 
ing  from  an  annual  contribution  of  two  dollars  from  each  of  its  resident 
members.  It  has  given  a  particular  and  steady  attention  to  the  re 
sources  open  to  us  in  the  three  kingdoms  of  nature,  and  to  plans  ot 
improvement  in  our  physical  economy.  Its  functions  were  suspended 
necessarily  during  the  revolution,  as  all  of  its  members  were  more  or 
less  ardent  in  the  cause  of  independence,  and  fitted  to  act  a  servicea 
ble  part  in  the  struggle.  There  has  not  been  displayed  since,  the  de 
gree  of  vivacity  and  earnestness  in  its  proper  career,  which  could  have 
been  wished  ;  but,  as  much,  perhaps,  as  was  reasonably  to  be  expected 
under  all  the  circumstances  of  the  country,  and  in  the  absence  of  all 
pecuniary  patronage.  The  hopes  to  be  entertained  of  it  now,  are 
considerable,  from  the  numbers,  particularly  among  the  rising  genera 
tion,  who  have  imbibed  a  relish  for  scientific  studies,  and  from  the 
greater  importance  which  it  is  likely  to  acquire  in  the  public  estima 
tion,  as  education  and  knowledge  spread  and  ripen  over  the  land.  Its 
library  consists  of  about  four  thousand  volumes,  comprising  the  best  ele 
mentary  treatises  in  science  and  the  technical  arts.  It  has  exchanged 
Transactions  with  most  of  the  academies  of  Europe,  and  has  been  en 
riched  with  many  valuable  works,  bestowed  spontaneously  and  with  ex 
pressions  of  lively  esteem,  by  their  authors,  such  as  the  Bullions,  the  La- 
voisiers,  the  Hunters,*  whose  vision  was  either  less  distinguishing,  or 
less  clouded,  (1  leave  the  world  to  decide  which,)  than'  that  of  the 
British  reviewers.  Its  Museum  of  Natural  History,  though  not  exten 
sive,  contains  a  number  of  rare  specimens,  chiefly  in  mineralogy.  Its; 
"  meeting  hunse"  to  use  the  language  of  the  Edinburgh  Review, 
where,  according  to  this  liberal  and  courteous  journal,  its  "transactions 
are  scraped  together"  is  a  commodious  and  handsome  edifice,  and  the 
room  in  which  it  assembles,  is,  certainly,  styled  "  Philosophical  Hall." 
The  remark  of  the  Review,  that  this  denomination  is  in  the  genuine 
dialect  of  tradesmen,  bespeaks  as  much  of  effrontery  as  ill  nature  ; 
since  the  Reviewers  must  have  known,  that  the  place  of  assembling  of 
most  of  the  learned  societies  and  professions  of  Great  Britain  bears  the 
same  title  of  Hall ;  and  that  a  term  exactly  correspondent  is  used  re 
spectively  by  almost  every  one  of  the  Academies  of  Europe:  Salle  dc 
Plnstitut,  &c. 

The  imagination  of  these  critics  might  be  supposed  to  be  affect 
ed  with  regard  to  "tradesmen."  It  will  be  recollected,  that  in  their 
first  review  of  Franklin's  Works,  they  complained  of  his  indulging,  in 
his  Memoirs,  in  too  many  details  and  anecdotes  concerning  that  class  of 
persons — "  obscure  individuals."  In  Zenuphon's  Memorabilia,  we  read 
the  following  as  part  of  one  of  the  dialogues:  "  Critias,  interrupting 
Socrates,  said — '  And  I,  Socrates,  I  can  inform  thee  of  something  more 
thou  hast  to  refrain  from  ;  keep  henceforth  at  a  proper  distance  from 
the  carpenters,  smiths,  and  shoemakers,  and  let  us  have  no  more  of  your 
examples  from  them?  «  Must  I  likewise  give  up  the  consequences,'  said 
Socrates,  *  deducible  from  these  examples,  and  concern  myself  no  longer 
with  justice  and  piety,  and  the  rules  of  right  and  wrong.'  Thou  must, 
by  Jupiter,  replied  Charicles.'  "  &.c. 

*  I  might  add  the  names  of  Ingenhauz,  Hiiiy,  Humboldt,  De  la 
Lande,  Cuvier,  Ebeling,  Adelung,  Maseres,  Biot,  Delambre,  Campo-* 


NOTES.  463 

(XOTE  P.  p.  225.)  PART 

A  just  account  of  the  character  of  General  Marshall  and  of  his 
work,  is  given  in  the  Letters  of  Inchiquin,  (letter  8).  The  following 
parts  of  it  I  could  wish  to  be  read  in  connexion  with  my  text. 

"  During-  the  war  of  the  revolution,  the  present  chief  justice  accom 
panied  the  American  forces  in  the  capacity  of  deputy  judge  advocate, 
which  situation  afforded  him  the  best  means  of  becoming  practically 
conversant  with  the  details  of  that  contest,  its  difficulties  and  resources; 
the  character  and  views  of  those  on  whom  it  mainly  devolved;  and  the 
construction,  movements,  and  engagements  of  the  armies.  In  process  of 
time  he  attained  to  situations  of  more  importance,  and  successively 
filled  several  of  the  first  offices.  Possessed  with  these  advantages,  en 
dowed  with  a  masculine,  versatile,  and  discriminating  genius,  and  hold 
ing  a  place,  calculated  to  give  weight  to  whatever  he  should  publish, 
lie  was  selected  to  compile  from  the  manuscripts  of  Washington,  and 
from  the  public  records  and  papers,  the  joint  annals  of  Washington  and 
his  country. 

"  The  objects  of  the  work  were  to  furnish  a  correct  and  honourable 
memorial  of  national  events,  and  to  immortalize  Washington.  His 
biography  is  therefore  prefaced  with  a  full  account  of  the  discovery 
and  advancement  of  North  America,  down  to  the  period  when  he  ap 
pears  upon  the  scene.  After  which  period,  till  his  death,  it  is  natu 
rally  interwoven  with  the  transactions  of  the  revolution,  which  his 
achievements  so  largely  contributed  to  effect,  and  with  the  formation  of 
the  government,  at  the  head  of  which  he  was  placed. 

"  The  public  documents  of  which  the  chief  justice  had  the  disposi 
tion,  would  be  inestimable,  even  if  arranged  by  inferior  hands,  without 
any  attempt  at  shaping  tiiem  into  a  connected  narrative.  But  wrought 
as  they  have  been  by  him,  into  a  clear,  manly,  systematic  and  philosophi 
cal  history,  without  a  grain  of  merit  on  the  score  of  composition,  they 
would  outweigh  the  most  beautiful  composition  that  ever  was  formed. 
There  is  not  another  national  history  extant,  which  is  composed  entirely 
of  authentic,  public  materials,  by  a  cotemporary  and  a  participator. 

"  Nor  is  the  composition  so  unworthy  of  the  subject.  The  commen 
taries  and  reflections  are  simple,  natural  and  just.  The  style  plain, 
nervous,  unaffected  ;  perhaps  too  bare  of  ornament,  and  sometimes 
liable  to  the  imputation  of  verbosity,  but  never  rough,  irksome,  or  in- 
elegant. 

«•  As  great  expectations  were  entertained  of  this  performance,  con 
siderable  disappointment  has  been  expressed  at  some  of  its  alleged  de 
fects  :  particularly  by  those  who,  vitiated  by  the  malevolent  system  of 
criticism  that  prevails  in  England  and  this  country,  are  never  "satisfied 
with  nature  and  plain  sense,  but  incessantly  crave  the  amazing  and  ro 
mantic.  In  every  department  of  letters,  standard^  are  erected,  to 
which  fresh  publications  are  referred  for  their  estimate.  But  is  it  fail- 
to  condemn  an  American  historian  to  oblivion,  because  he  is  less  enter 
taining  than  Hume  or  Gibbon,  or  an  epic  poet,  because  he  falls  short  of 
Milton  ? 

"  The  American  historian  had  neither  anomalies  nor  miracles  to  deal 
with.  The  recent  discovery  of  a  new  world;  the  still  more  recent 
struggles  of  an  infant  people  to  shake  off  the  trammels  of  colonization  ; 
late  events,  of  little  except  moral  interest ;  partial,  procrastinated,  and 
seldom  signalized  warfare  ;  the  adjustment  of  treaties  and  formation  of 
republican  institutions  ;  though  highly  interesting  to  modern  contem 
plation,  are  much  less  malleable,  than  remote  a'nd  doubtful  traditions 
of  astonishing  transactions,  into  the  magazine  of  entertainment,  which 
seems  to  be  looked  for  in  modern  history.  But  whatever  the  present 
ag-e  may  desire,  facts  soon  become  vastly  more  important  than  disserta- 


464  NOTES. 


PART  I.  tions  ;  nor  can  moral  results  ever  be  fairly  taken,  unless  readers  may 
implicitly  rely  on  the  truth  of  the  details. 

"The  narrative  of  the  Life  of  Washington  might  perhaps,  have  been 
enlivened  with  more  biographical  and  characteristic  sketches.  But  it 
must  be  remembered,  that  to  draw  living  characters  is  an  arduous  and 
invidious  task.  And  when  the  whole  subject  matter  is  well  considered, 
the  author  will  be  found  well  entitled  to  our  approbation  for  the  cau 
tion  he  has  exercised  in  this  particular.  As  to  Washington  himself,  the 
uniformity  of  his  life,  and  taciturnity  of  his  nature,  precluded  any  suf 
ficient  funds  for  this  minor  scene  :  though  I  cannot  refrain  from  observ 
ing  that  his  unaffected  and  warm  piety,  his  belief  in  the  Christian  reli 
gion,  and  exemplary  discharge  of  all  its  public  and  private  duties,  might 
have  been  enlarged  upon  with  more  emphasis  and  advantage. 

"  At  such  a  period  as  the  present,  when  the  press  is  converted 
into  a  powerful  engine  of  falsehood,  proscription  and  confusion  ;  when 
letters  are  perverted  to  the  most  treacherous  and  unworthy  pur 
poses,  it  behoves  every  American,  who  admires  the  history  of  his 
country,  it  behoves,  indeed,  every  man  who  loves  truth,  to  uphold 
an  authentic  national  work,  like  Marshall's,  against  its  malign  enemies 
and  lukewarm  friends,  and  to  cherish  it  as  a  performance  whose  sub 
ject  and  authenticity  alone,  independent  of  any  other  merits,  should 
preserve  and  magnify  it  for  ever." 


(NOTE  Q.  p.  228.) 

IT  is  curious  to  find  a  journal  published  in  Scotland,  complaining  oi 
ihe  Americans  as  a  "  scattered,  migratory,  and  speculating  people,"  and 
attributing  to  them  as  such,  a  system  of  manners  and  morality  below  the 
European  standard.  M.  Brougham  lately  asked  in  Parliament  a  ques 
tion  which  we  may  repeat — in  what  part  of  the  world  is  it  in  which 
Scotchmen  are  not  to  be  found  in  numbers  ?  and,  we  may  add,  in  which 
they  do  not  appear  as  adventurers  and  speculators  ?  We  do  not,  how 
ever,  tax  them,  on  this  account,  with  having  "great  and  peculiar  faults," 
but  on  the  contrary,  we  respect  in  them  that  spirit  of  enterprise,  and 
pride  of  independence,  which  prompt  them  to  incur  all  the  hazards  and 
hardships  of  distant  emigration,  rather  than  groan  in  poverty,  and 
crouch  under  hereditary  superiors,  at  home.  I  think  it  would  be  diffi 
cult  to  show  the  process  by  which  the  sense  of  honour  improves,  as  "  the 
spirit  of  adventure  is  deprived  of  its  object,  and  as  population  thickens 
and  becomes  crowded."  It  is  in  this  state  of  things  that  poverty  and  ser 
vility  are  engendered  ;  that  crimes  multiply  from  the  impulses  of  des 
peration  ;  that  turpitude  and  brutality  are  kept  in  countenance  by  the 
multitude  of  examples.  The  operation  of  hope  upon  the  mind;  the  very 
career  itself  of  seeking  and  compassing  a  more,  comfortable,  independ 
ent  condition,  are  favourable  to  the  manners  and  morals.  The  sense  of 
honour  improves  with  the  sense  of  personal  importance,  which  grows 
out  of  self-reliance,  and  equality  of  rank. 

The  second  number  of  "  The  Old  Bachelor,"  a  work  which,  in  gene 
ral,  is  creditable  to  our  literature,  contains  a  keen  retort  for  the  pa 
ragraphs  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  to  which  this  note  refers.  "They 
exhibit,"  says  the  Virginian  essayist,  "  a  palpable  and  ludicrous  struggle 
between  the  object  and  the  conscience  of  the  critic;  between  the  con 
flicting1  purposes  of  lashing  Mi1.  Ashe,  for  lampooning  the  Americans, 
and  at  the  same  time  of  inflicting  the  lash  on  them  himself."  See  No. 
'J,  1st  volume  of  Old  Bachelor,  for  a  full  exposition  of  the  absurdity  oi 
'hose  paragraphs. 


NOTES.  465 

PART  I. 
(NOTE  R.  p.  251.)  .    v^^^, 

THK  whole  concentrated  reproach  of  this  and  the  succeeding1  page  of 
the  text  is  capable  of  being1  fully  refuted  ;  and  will  be  so,  I  trust,  by  the 
simple  annunciation  of  facts,  in  my  intended  exposition  of  the  actual 
state  of  this  country.  It  may  be  also  retorted,  and  this  is  the  proper 
mode  of  dealing  with  it  at  present.  We  shall  convict  ^ie  English  writer 
of  the  most  hardy  disingenuousness,  in  describing,  as  peculiar  to  the 
United  States,  dispositions  and  practices  which  notoriously  prevail 
around  him,  in  England,  to  an  unparalleled  extent ;  which  had  their 
origin  there  ;  and  are  almost  daily  aggravated  in  amount  and  malignity. 

The  determination  on  the  part  of  the  Reviewer  to  calumniate  the 
Americans,  is  immediately  betrayed  by  the  preposterous  and  arbitrary 
refinement  of  distinguishing  between  their  feeling  in  getting  drunk  and 
that  of  the  European.  The  pleasure  of  the  one  is  sensual  and  brutal, 
while  that  of  the  other  is  liberal-minded  and  somewhat  sentimental ! 
And  hence  it  is,  according  to  the  critic,  that  the  Americans  decide  their 
quarrels  in  ways  which,  we  are  given  to  understand,  are  unknown  in 
Europe, — rough  and  tumbling ;  biting  and  lacerating,  &c. 

I  will  not  refer  to  the  Parliamentary  statements  respecting  the  quan 
tity  of  whiskey,  licensed  and  unlicensed,  consumed  in  Ireland  ;  and  the 
prevalence  of  intoxication  in  that  unhappy  country.  The  vice  there  is 
not  merely  "  social  hilarity  betrayed  into  excess,"  but  the  desperation 
of  want  and  abjection,  springing  from  selfish  misgovernment  by  the 
ruling  kingdom.  We  will  confine  ourselves  to  England,  and  leave  it  to 
the  common  sense  of  the  reader  to  determine  whether  she  is  entitled 
to  boast  of  her  superior  sobriety ;  and  whether  there  is  much  that  is 
.sentimental  and  generous  in  the  process  of  intoxication  with  the  topers 
mentioned  in  the  extracts  which  I  am  about  to  offer.  1  take  the  follow 
ing  from  the  late  Reports  of  the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons 
on  ihe  Police  of  the  Metropolis. 

"Question  put  to  one  of  the  most  respectable  witnesses — 

"Do  you  think  there  has  been  an  increased  consumption  of  giu 
within  these  few  years  ?  I  have  no  doubt  of  it,  as  the  increase  of  beg 
gars  is  visible  :  almost  all  these  persons  about  the  streets  drink,  and 
they  train  up  their  children  in  drinking.  I  have  seen  them  at  the  door 
of  the  gin-shops,  giving  their  children  in  arms  the  draining  of  a  glass. 
There  are  five  large  gin-shops,  or  wine-vaults,  as  they  are  called,  close 
to  the  Seven  Dials,  which  are  constantly  frequented.  There  is  one  where 
they  go  in  at  one  door  and  out  at  another,  to  prevent  the  inconvenience 
of  their  returning  the  same  way,  where  there  are  so  many.  A  friend  of 
mine,  who  lived  opposite,  had  the  curiosity  to  count  how  many  went  in 
in  the  course  of  one  Sunday  morning,  before  he  went  to  church,  and  1; 
was  320." 

Statement  of  another  respectable  witness. 

"  On  a  Sunday  morning,  from  April  to  Michaelmas,  on  Holburn  Hill, 
there  is  nothing  but  riot  and  confusion,  from  Hatton  Garden  to  the 
Market,  from  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  eight ;  the  gin-shops  open 
so  early  that  they  get  drunk,  and  are  rioting  and  fighting  about.  I  should 
ihink  that  there  must  be  two,  or  three,  or  four  hundred — it  is  quite  like 
a  market — loose,  disorderly  people  of  both  sexes — I  have  seen  as  much 
as  three  or  four  fights  on  a  Sunday  morning.  Thompson's  gin-shop  is 
what  they  call  the  best.  I  should  not  wonder  if  there  were  a  thousand 
customers  on  a  Sunday  morning,  before  the  time  of  service — the  place  is 
full  from  four  in  the  morning  till  eleven." 

These  are  simple  specimens,  which  do  not,  by  any  means,  convey  an 
adequate  idea  of  the  enormity  and  diffusiveness  of  the  evil.  It  is  to 
Colquhoun's  Treatises  on  the  Police  of  the  Metropolis,  and  on  Indigence, 

VOL.  T.— 3  N 


466  NOTES. 

PART  I.   that  I  would  refer  on  this  head.     His  statements,  in  those  works,  are 
s^-V^^/  made  for  1806 ;  and  the  late  Parliamentary  reports  do  not  merely  con 
firm  them,  but  show  an  increase  of  the  vice  of  tippling  in  a  ratio  far 
greater  than  that  of  the  population.     He  bears  the  following  testimony. 
"  The  quantity  of  beer,  porter,  gin,  and  compounds,  sold  in  public 
houses  in  the  metropolis  and  its  environs,  has  been  estimated,  after  be 
stowing  considerable  pains  in  forming  a  calculation,  at  nearly  3,300,000 
pounds  sterling  a  year,  a  sum  equal  to  double  the  revenue  of  some  of  the 
kingdoms  and  states  *of  Europe." 

«'  In  the  year  ending  July  1st,  1806,  the  quantity  of  porter,  strong  ale, 
and  small  beer  brewed  in  London  by  20  principal,  and  126  lesser  brewers, 
amounted  to  68,228,432  gallons,  valued,  at  the  sale  price,  at  4,440,384f, 
The  annual  consumption  of  this  beverage  must  now  exceed  12,000,000^., 
and  of  home-made  spirits  about  5,000,000/.  There  are  about  fifty  thou 
sand  licensed  ale-houses  in  England  and  Wales,  furnishing  facilities  not 
only  for  intoxication,  but  every  other  kind  of  brutal  excess.  In  the 
whole  of  the  metropolis  and  its  environs,  it  is  calculated  that  there  is 
about  one  public  house  to  every  thirty-seven  families.  The  prevailing 
habit  among  the  labouring1  people,  in  every  district  in  England  and 
Wales,  is  to  spend  the  chief  part  of  their  leisure  time  in  ale-houses.  In 
vulgar  life,  it  is  the  first  ambition  of  the  youth,  when  approaching  to 
wards  an  adult  state,  to  learn  to  smoke  tobacco.  When  this  accom 
plishment  is  acquired,  he  finds  himself  qualified  to  waste  his  time  in 
the  tap-room.  But  the  evil  does  not  rest  here.  Numerous  families  of 
labourers  lodge  with  their  wives  and  children  in  common  ale-houses, 
in  the  metropolis,  and  probably  in  most  of  the  large  cities  and  towns  in 
different  parts  of  the  kingdom;  while,  of  late  years,  the  females  indis 
criminately  mix  with  the  males,  and  unblushingly  listen  to  all  the  lewd, 
and  often  obscene  discourse  which  circulates  freely  in  these  haunts  ot 
vice  and  idleness  " 

The  duties  upon  the  liquor  brewed  by  the  eleven  principal  porter 
breweries  of  London,  amounted,  in  1818,  to  900,000/.  sterling.  The  ex 
cise  upon  malt,  beer,  and  British  spirits,  throughout  Great  Britain,  to 
nine  millions  sterling;  to  which  two  millions  have  been  added  in  the 
late  addition  to  the  general  taxation. 

Mr.Bennet,  in  asking  leave,  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  year  (1818), 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  to  bring  in  a  bill  for  the  better  regulation  of 
ale-houses,  made  the  following  statement.  "  A  large  proportion  of  the 
vice  and  immorality  which  prevails  may  be  traced  to  the  bad  system 
acted  upon  at  present  in  licensing  and  regulating  public  houses.  It 
would  be  seen  by  the  evidence  in  the  report  of  the  committee  on  the 
subject,  not  only  that  houses  of  the  most  nefarious  kind  were  permitted 
to  exist,  but  that  they  existed  with  the  full  countenance  and  concurrence 
of  some  of  the  police  officers,  who  frequented  them,  and  who  had  a 
fellow  feeling  with  the  persons  assembled  in  them.  There  were  above 
two  hundred  houses  of  that  description  in  London,  in  which  a  nightly  and 
promiscuous  assemblage  took  place,  not  only  of  men  and  women,  but  ot 
boys  and  girls  of  eight,  nine,  ten,  and  eleven  years  of  age.  In  some  ol 
them  there  was  established  a  sort  of  regular  court  of  justice,  at  the 
head  of  which  a  Jew  presided ;  before  whom  was  brought  all  the  pil 
lage  and  profits  of  the  day  and  night,  and  who  superintended  their  re 
gular  distribution.  He  knew  one  instance  of  a  boy,  not  thirteen  yean 
old,  who,  in  the  course  of  one  night,  disposed  of  property  to  the  amoun 
of  100/." 

Lest  it  should  be  still  supposed  that  London  has  a  monopoly  of  the  gen 
try  whom  "  social  hilarity  betrays  into  excess"  of  potation,  or  that  the 
race  may  be  extinct,  I  will  quote  a  passage  on  the  subject  from  a  ver) 
recent  work  of  unquestionable  authority — the  "  Observations  of  Williarr 
Koscoe,  Esq.  of  Liverpool,  on  Penal  Jurisprudence."  "  In  taking  a  sur 


NOTES, 


467 


vey  of  society  around  us,"  says  this  eye  witness,  and  zealous  patriot,  PART  I. 
«'  one  of  the  most  striking  objects  which  attracts  our  attention,  and  v^-v-^*' 
which  particularly  excites  ihe  observation  and  surprise  of  every  stranger, 
is  the  shocking1  habit  of  intoxication,  which  is  exhibited,  not  only  in  the 
metropolis,  but  in  most  other  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  which  if  not  actu 
ally  encouraged,  is  openly  permitted  to  the  most  alarming  and  incredible 
extent.  Let  the  reader  who  doubts  this  assertion  examine  the  reports 
of  the  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  appointed  to  inquire  into 
the  police  of  the  metropolis;  he  will  there  find  such  a  representation 
of  the  dreadful  effects  of  this  vice,  as  cannot  fail  to  call  the  public  atten 
tion  to  a  subject,  in  which,  not  only  the  interests  of  morality  and  reli 
gion,  but  the  personal  and  individual  safety  of  every  member  of  the 
community  is  in  some  degree  involved.  It  is  principally  to  this  source 
that  the  committee  have  traced  up  the  increased  depravity  of  the  pre 
sent  times ;  and  they  have  shown,  by  the  most  authentic  evidence,  that 
most  of  the  horrible  crimes  which  have  of  late  been  committed,  in  and 
about  the  metropolis,  have  been  occasioned  by  the  '  brutalizing  effect 
of  spirituous  liquors ;  by  which  the  criminal  is  rendered  insensible  to 
the  milder  feelings  of  his  nature,  and  regardless  of  all  consequences, 
whether  as  affecting  this  world  or  another.'  To  the  same  cause  a  very 
respectable  witness  attributes  the  spirit  of  insubordination  and  sedition, 
which  has  manifi  sted  itself  in  some  districts,  and  the  murders  to  which 
it  has  given  rise." 

As  for  the  practice  of  gambling  which  the  Quarterly  Review,  with 
monstrous  injustice,  charges  upon  "  all  orders  of  men,  clergy  as  well  as 
laity"  in  the  United  States,  1  will  again  refer  to  Colquhoun's  book,*  for 
a  sketch  of  the  sins  of  the  British  metropolis  on  this  score.  The  details 
are  such,  both  in  that  work  and  in  the  Parliamentary  Reports,  as  I  do 
not  wish  to  repeat ;  but  no  one  who  has  read  them,  and  who  knows 
America,  will  deem  me  extravagant,  when  I  assert,  that  the  gambling  of 
London  alone  far  exceeds  that  of  the  whole  United  States,  whether  as  to 
the  variety  and  odiousness  of  its  forms;  the  depravity  of  spirit  with 
which  it  is  pursued ;  the  knavery  with  which  it  is  accompanied  ;  the 
crimes  and  miseries  to  which  it  leads ;  or  the  amount  of  the  sums  staked 
within  the  year.  Colquhoun  estimated  this  amount  at  7.225. OOO/.  ster 
ling,  besides  3,135,0001.  for  fraudulent  insurances  in  the  lottery.^  M. 
Roscoe,  in  the  work  of  his  which  I  have  just  quoted,  ailedges  that 
one  of  the  principal  causes  of  the  unexampled  frequency  of  crimes  in 
the  present  day,  in  England,  is  the  open  and  unrestrained  practice  of  gam 
bling,  which,  originating  in  the  higher  classes,  has  infected  the  lower, 
till  it  has  become  the  habitual  occupation  even  of  children  of  the  low 
est  ranks,  who  are  seen  in  the  streets  of  the  metropolis,  on  the  Sunday 
particularly,  in  gaming  parties,  fifty  or  sixty  in  a  gang."t 

Let  us  now  attend  to  the  pretended  effects  of  the  anomalous  inebria 
tion  of  the  Americans  : — their  rough  and  tumbling ;  their  biting  and  la 
cerating  each  other,  and  their  gouging.  The  last  named  practice  is  the 
thrusting  out  of  the  antagonist's  eye  in  a  pugilistic  combat.  No  in 
stance  of  it  has  ever  been  known  in  the  states  north  of  Maryland ;  it 
has  occurred  in  some  of  the  southern  ;  but  is  now  rare,  and  become  dis 
honourable  even  among  that  class  of  persons,  the  vulgarest  and  most 
licentious,  to  which  it  was  confined.  But,  admitting  it  to  be  a  ground 
of  national  reproach,  is  it  in  itself  more  savage  or  disgraceful  than  the 

*  P.  142  3d  sec.  Police  of  the  Metropolis. 

f  In  his  Treatise  on  Indigence,  Colquhoun  estimates  at  10,000,  the 
class  of  persons  whom  he  calls  lottery  vagrants,  employed  in  London  in 
procuring  insurances  during  the  lottery  drawings. 

t  Page  30, 


kOO  NOTES. 

PART  I.  knobbing,  fibbing,  milling,  and  all  the  other  modes  of  injury  in  fight,  for 
s»x"V"^/  which  the  English  have  invented  a  technical  vocabulary  ?  Is  there  any 
thing1  worse  in  it,  than  what  we  read  in  almost  all  the  accounts  of  the 
set  and  mercenary  battles,  at  which  the  English  of  all  ranks  attend  in 
thousands  with  the  keenness  of  passion — to  wit :  that  such  a  one,  and 
such  a  one,  "the  champion  of  England,"  "  the  cock  of  the  nation,"  af 
ter  having  demolished  one  of  his  antagonist's  eyes,  "  made  continual 
play  at  the  other !"  Is  the  spectacle  which  the  gouged  combatant  may 
be  supposed  to  offer,  indicative  of  more  ferocity  in  the  combat,  or  more 
shocking  to  the  memory,  or  more  offensive  to  the  sight,  than  that  of 
the  vanquished  party  in  the  affair  described  in  the  following  extract 
from  Bell's  Weekly  Messenger,  of  Dec.  7,  1818. 

"  The  great  battle  between  Turner  and  Randall,  at  Copthorn,  on 
Saturday. 

"This  match  for  one  hundred  guineas  aside  was  fought  on  Saturday 
at  the  above  spot,  amidst  thousands  of  spectators. 

"  Turner  from  the  seventh  round  exhibited  a  head  like  a  red  night 
cap,  not  a  slice  of  flesh,  (for  it  was  hit  in  all  directions)  but  what  was 
covered  with  bloo  1.  There  was  no  knock  down  till  the  fourteenth 
round,  when  Randall,  after  a  hit  in  every  round,  to  keep  the  blood  in 
motion,  floored  him  by  a  clean  right  handed  body  hit." 

Gouging  is  abhorred  by  every  man  of  this  country  who  pretends  to 
character:  seeking  to  witness  it  as  an  entertainment  is  not  imaginable  in 
the -habits  or  tastes  of  any  such  person.  But  the  head  like  a  red  jiight- 
Crt/>,-  the  fainting  pugilist  covered  with  blood,  blinded  and  mangied,  and 
finally,  when  incapable  of  all  further  offence  or  resistance,  deliberately 
laid  senseless,  perhaps  lifeless,  with  "  a  clean  right-handed  body  hit" — 
This  is  the  exhibition  in  which  men  of  rank  and  fashion  in  England  de 
light;  over  which  they  preside,  and  which  can  draw  togetherjtwenty  thou 
sand  spectators  of  all  classes,  as  to  a  festival  not  only  yielding  gratifica 
tion,  but  furnishing  an  opportunity  for  gambling  speculations.*  Horri 
ble  as  these  prize  fights  are,  they  are  thought  worthy  of  encourage 
ment  as  a  substitute  for  the  modes  in  which  the  English  peasantry  and 
populace  were  and  are  wont  "  to  decide  their  quarrels."  In  the  vo 
lume  for  1806,  of  Nicholson's  Philosophical  Magazine,  there  is  a  disser 
tation  written  by  Ur.  Bardsley,  of  Manchester,  *'  On  the  Use  and  Abuse 
of  popular  Sports  and  Exercises;"  which  discloses  to  us  what,  doubt 
less,  the  Quarterly  Review  must  have  considered  as  a  secret,  that  those 
modes  are  precisely  the  rough  and  tumbling,  biting  and  lacerating  which 
it  would  represent  as  peculiar  to  the  Americans.  Even  the  gouging  is 
included,  virtually,  if  not  by  name,  and  very  frequently  manslaughter,  a 
term  sufficiently  familiar  in  England.  We  are  outdone  by  the  very  mo 
dels  of  civ  ilization,  as  will  appear  by  the  following  statements  of  the 
Manchester  writer. 

"  Even  in  France,  and  most  parts  of  Germany,  the  quarrels  of  the 
people  are  determined  by  a  brutal  appeal  to  force,  directed  in  any  man 
ner,  however  perilous,  to  the  annoyance  or  destruction  of  the  adver- 

*  (BOXING.)  Bell's  Weekly  Messenger,  May  10th,  1819. 
"  The  match  between  Randall  and  Martin,  took  place  on  Tuesday, 
on  Crawley  Downs,  more  than  thirty  miles  from  London,  and  the  spec 
tators  were  at  least  twenty  thousand  in  number ;  they  fought  nineteen 
rounds  in  about  fifty  minutes,  when  Martin  resigned  the  contest.  Ran 
dall  was  matched  150/.  to  100/.,  betting  was  seven  to  four  upon  him. — 
Spring  and  Carter  next  entered  the  ring.  A  worse  fight  has  not  been 
seen  for  many  years,  Spring  won  it  in  an  hour  and  three  quarters. 
There  -was  very  little  money  betted  on  thisjightin  London.  Many  weje  of 
opinion  that  the  whole  was  a  trick  upon  the  knowing  ones." 


Noias.  469 

sary.     Sticks,  stones,  and  every  dangerous  kind  of  weapon,  are  resorted   PART  I. 
to  tor  the  gratification  of  passion  or  revenge      But  the  most  common  .^f.  ^  -^. 
and  savage  method  of  settling  quarrels  upon  the  continent  is  the  adop-    • 
tion  of  the  Roman  pancratium.  The  parties  close,  and  struggle  to  throw 
each  other  down ;  at  the  same  time  the  teeth  and  nails  are  not  unem 
ployed.     In  short,  they  tear  each  other  like  wild  beasts,  and  never  de 
sist*  from  the  conflict  till  their  strength  is  completely  exhausted;  and 
thus,  regardless  of  any  established  laws  of  honour  which  teach  forbear 
ance  to  a  prostrate  foe,  their  cruelty  is  only  terminated  by  their  inability 
to  inflict  more  mischief." 

"  The  mode  of  fighting  in  Holland,  among  the  seamen  and  others,  is 
well  known  by  the  appellation  of  snicker-snee.  In  this  contest  sharp 
knives  are  used  ;  and  the  parties  frequently  maim,  and  sometimes  de 
stroy  each  other.  The  government  deems  it  necessary  to  tolerate  this 
savage  practice." 

"  1  is  a  singular  though  striking  fact,  that  in  those  parts  of  the  king 
dom  of  England  where  the  generous  and  manlysystem  of  pugilism  is  least 
practised,  and  where,  for  the  most  part,  all  personal  disputes  are  decided 
by  the  exertion  of  savage  strength  and  ferocity — a  fondness  for  barbarous 
and  bloody  spons  is  found  to  prevail.  In  some  parts  of  Lancashire, 
bull-baiting  and  man-slaying  are  common  practices.  The  knowledge  of 
pugilism  as  an  art  is,  in  these  places,  neither  understood  nor  practised 
There  is  no  established  rule  of  honour  to  save  the  weak  from  the  strong-, 
but  every  man's  life  is  at  the  mercy  of  his  successful  antagonist.  The 
object  of  each  combatant  in  these  disgraceful  contests,  is,  to  throw  each 
other  prostrate  on  the  ground,  and  then  with  hands  and  feet,  teeth  and 
nails,  to  inflict,  at  random,  every  possible  degree  of  injury  and  torment. 
This  is  not  an  exaggerated  statement  of  the  barbarism  still  prevailing  in 
many  parts  of  this  kingdom.  The  country  assizes  for  Lancashire  afford 
too  many  convincing  proofs  of  the  increasing  mischiefs  arising  from  these 
and  other  disgraceful  combats." 

"  A.  disgusting  instance  of  this  ferocious  mode  of  deciding  quarrels, 
was  not  long  since  brought  forward  at  the  Manchester  sessions.  It  ap 
peared  in  evidence,  that  two  persons,  upon  some  trifling  dispute,  at  a 
public  house,  agreed  to  lock  themselves  up  in  a  room  with  the  landlord 
and  *  fight  it  out'  according  to  the  Bolton  method.  This  contest  lasted 
a  long  time,  and  was  only  terminated  by  the  loss  of  the  greatest  part  of 
the  nose  and  a  part  of  the  ear,  belonging  to  one  of  the  parties,  which 
were  actually  bitten  off  by  the  other,  during  the  fight.  The  sufferer 
exhibited  at  the  trial  part  of  the  ear  so  torn  ofT;  and  upon  being  asked 
by  the  counsel  what  had  become  of  that  part  of  his  nose  which  waf 
missing — he  replied  with  perfect  naivete* — 'that  he  believed  his  anta 
gonist  had  swallowed  it  !*  It  has  happened  to  the  writer  of  these  re 
marks  to  witness,  in  more  than  one  instance,  the  picking  up  in  the 
streets,  lacerated  portions  of  ears  and  fingers,  after  these  detestable 
and  savage  broils." 

"  The  judges,  on  the  occasions  above  mentioned,  have  frequently  de 
clared  in  the  most  solemn  and  impressive  charges  to  the  grand  jury, 
that  the  number  of  persons  indicted  for  murder,  or  manslaughter,  in 
consequence  of  the  bestial  mode  of  fighting  practised  in  this  country, 
far  exceeded  that  of  the  whole  northern  circuit ;  and  that,  in  future, 
they  were  determined  to  punish  with  the  utmost  rigour  of  the  law, 
offenders  of  this  description — But,  alas  !  these  just  denunciations  have 
little  availed — at  one  assize,  no  less  than  nine  persons  were  convicted 
of  manslaughter,  originating  from  these  disgraceful  encounters." 

The  reader  would  fain  believe,  I  presume,  that  these  "diabolical 
practices,"  recited  from  Bardsley,  have  ceased ;  but  I  cannot  give  him 
this  consolation,  or  in  any  way  disguise  the  truth,  as  long  as  the  principal 
London  Journals  present  paragraphs  like  the  following : 


470  NOTES. 

PART  I.  Courier,  Jan.  18th,  1819 

V^-v^^/  "MIDDLESEX  SESSIONS. 

"  D,  Donovan  was  found  guilty  of  biting  off  the  nose  of  M.  Donovan 
in  a  fight  which  they  had.  J.  J.  Wakeman  was  sentenced  to  six  months 
imprisonment,  having  been  found  guilty  of  seizing  It.  Cotton  by  the 
throat,  and  forcing  out  his  tongue,  half  of  which  he  bit  off,  and  the 
next  day  bragged  of  having  eaten." 

Bell's  Weekly  Messenger,  May  31,  1819. 
"EPSOM  RACES,  Friday— Third  day,  May  28,  1819. 

"Several  races  of  minor  importance  took  place  this  day,  and  afforded 
considerable  amusement  and  interest  to  the  sporting  gentry.  When  the 
races  \vcre  concluded,  they  endeavoured  to  amuse  themselves  by  a  view 
of  a  ruffianly  sort  of  fight  between  Oliver,  and  a  black  by  the  name  oi 
Kenrich,  in  which  the  former  obtained  the  victory." 

Sporting  Magazine,  April,  1819. 

"  A  pugilistic  combat  for  100  guineas  a  side,  and  10  guineas,  took 
place  on  Forest  H.-ath,  a  few  miles  from  Stony  Stratford,  on  Wednes 
day,  Aprjl  7th,  between  George  Dunkeley,  a  giant  of  17  stone,  and  6 
feet  4  inches  in  height,  and  Harry  Foreman,  a  miner  from  Oxfordshire, 
of  nearly  equal  weight.  Many  thousand  spectators  were  present.  They 
fought  nine  rounds  in  the  most  slaughtering  and  ferocious  manner,  and 
in  the  latter  Dunkeley  broke  his  adversary's  left  jaw,  and  was  declared 
the  victor.  Dunkeley  was  so  much  injured  by  body  hits,  that  he  was 
carried  off  the  ground  in  a  dangerous  state." 

Sporting  Magazine,  May,  1819. 
"PUGILISM. 

"  Battle  between  Carter  and  Spring,  on  Crawley  Downs,  30  miles  from 
London,  on  Tuesilay,  May  4. 

"It  is  supposed  if  the  carriages  hud  all  been  placed  in  one  line,  they 
would  have  reached  from  London  to  Crawley.  The  amateurs  were  of 
the  highest  distinction ;  and  several  noblemen  and  foreigners  of  rank 
were  upon  the  ground. 

"  The  signal  was  given  for  stripping,  and  a  most  extensive  ring  was 
immediately  beat  out ;  and  among  the  crowd  numbers  of  females  were 
to  be  seen,  anxious  to  get  a  peep  at  these  famous  heroes,"  &c. 

Sporting  Magazine,  May,  1819. 
"  COCKING— CHESTER. 

"  During  the  races,  a  main  of  cocks  was  fought  between  the  gentle 
men  of  Cheshire,  (Gilliver,  feeder,)  and  the  gentlemen  of  Lancashire, 
(P  <riridge,  feeder,)  for  ten  guineas  a  battle,  and  two  hundred  guineas 
the  main." 

"  The  great  main  of  cocks,  between  the  gentlemen  of  Norwich  and 
Cambridge,  was  fought  this  month,  at  the  Swan  Inn,  in  Norwich,  and 
was  won  by  the  former — one  battle  a-head." 

"On  Monday,  May  3,  and  two  following  days,  the  match  of  cocks 
between  the  gentlemen  of  Gloucestershire  and  Oxfordshire,  took  place 
at  the  cockpit,  Holywell,  in  Oxford,  when  the  former  were  victors, 
three  in  the  main,  and  six  in  the  bye  battles,*'  &c. 

"  Pugilistic  contest,  near  Barnesley,  Yorkshire. — This  battle  was  for 
sixty  guineas  a  side,  between  John  Wike,  the  chamj/u-n  of  the  latter 
place,  and  an  amateur  of  the  name  of  Green,  a  pupil  of  the  scientific 
Oeorge  Head,  on  Wednesday,  April  14.  This  contest  excited  consi- 


NOTES.  471 

derable  interest  for  miles  round  Barnesley,  and  the  battle  took  place  at  PART  I. 
the  Full-dews,  about  four  miles  from  Barnesley,  in  the  presence  of  -_^-T-^ 
some  thousands  of  spectators.    For  one  hour  and  fifty  two  minutes  the 
heat  of  battle  raged,  and  during  which  period  94  rounds  were  severely 
contested. 

"  Wike's  head  was  materially  changed,  one  of  his  ogles  was  closed, 
and  the  other  fast  verging  to  durkness.  In  the  94th  and  last  round, 
"Wike  was  floored  from  a  tremendous  hit  upon  his  throat,"  5cc. 

The  Sporting  Magazine,  April,  1819. 
"PUGILISM. 

"  Between  Purcell  and  Warkley,  for  a  purse  of  501.  given  by  the 
amateurs  of  Norwich,  on  Thursday,  April  1. 

"  The  above  contest  excited  considerable  interest  among  the  provin 
cial  fancy,  and  no  less  than  10,000  persons  assembled  on  the  above  spot 
to  witness  the  battle. 

«  ROUNDS. 

"7.  Warkley  got  Purcell's  head  under  the  rope,  and  made  some 
heavy  hits  with  his  right  hand.  Purcell's  head  appeared  truly  terrific, 
being  one  mass  of  blood. 

"  8.  Purcell  showed  a  severe  cut  under  the  before  contused  eye 
which  appeared  closed,  and  bled  profusely." 

"  17.  After  retreating  to  his  old  corner,  he  fought  most  dreadfully, 
and  no  feature  of  Purcell's  face  could  be  distinguished  from  the  flowing 
of  blood,"  &c, 

I  have  had  occasion  to  remark,  in  the  second  Section  of  this  volume, 
that  the  legislators  of  New  England  prohibited  the  vulgar  sports  com 
mon  in  the  mother  country.  Bull  and  bear-baiting,  horse-racing,  and 
cock-fighting,  have  never  been  practiced  in  our  northern  States  ;  in  the 
middle,  they  have  not,  with  the  exception  of  horse-racing,  often  oc 
curred?  and  it  is  only  in  the  south  that  bull  and  bear  baiting  is  now 
known  ;  even  there  it  occurs  but  very  seldom.  The  baiting  of  horses, 
of  which  I  have  quoted  an  instance,  in  the  text,  from  the  Memoirs  of 
Evelyn,  appears  to  have  been  a  favourite  sport  in  the  mother  country. 
Strutt  has  recorded  it  in  his  amusing  volume  on  "the  Diversions  and 
Pastimes  of  the  people  of  England,"  and  given  a  plate  of  the  manner 
in  which  it  was  performed.  Asses  were  treated  with  the  same  inhuma 
nity.  With  respect  to  this  useful  animal,  and  the  more  noble  one  the 
horse,  the  Americans  are  altogether  free  from  the  reproach  of  having 
followed  the  ignominious  example  of  torturing  and  destroying  them  at 
the  stake.  Nor  do  our  annals  afford  an  instance  of  the  British  refine 
ment  of  whipping  a  blinded  bear.  This  popular  practice  consisted,  to 
use  the  language  of  Strutt  and  Bardsley,  "  in  several  persons  at  the 
same  time  scourging  with  whips,  a  blind-folded  bear  round  the  ring, 
whose  sufferings  and  awkward  attempts  at  revenge  highly  gratified  the 
noble  as  well  as  ignoble  spectators."  The  duck-hunting  described  by 
Strutt,  is  equally  without  example  in  this  country,  and  so  I  believe  to 
be  the  favourite  English  amusement  of  throwing  at  tacks,  of  which  he 
treats  in  his  third  book.  But  the  English  traveller,  .Fearon,  has  disco 
vered  that  the  Kentuckians  have  a  pastime  called  gander -pulling,  that 
is,  twisting  of!'  at  full  gallop  the  head  of  a  gander  tied  to  a  tree.  Fea 
ron  does  not  allege  that  he  saw  it  himself.  There  are,  certainly,  very 
few  Kentuckiuns  who  have  even  heard  of  it.  It  is,  however,  eagerly 
seized  upon  by  the  Quarterly  Reviewers,  who  affect  to  shudder,  and  to 
be  scandalized  infinitely,  as  if  the  feelings  of  an  Englishman  at  home 
were  virginal  in  respect  to  acts  of  brutality  towards  animals.  Dr.  Bards- 
ley  shall  inform  us  specifically  whether  this  be  the  fact.  The  following 


472  NOTES. 

PART  I.  passages  of  his  Dissertation  might  have  taught  the  Reviewers  a  little 
Y^*y*^.    .  caution. 

"  If  the  Romans  set  us  the  example  in  devising  these  sports,  (the 
baiting  and  torturing  of  animals.)  it  must  be  confessed,  we  have  *  bet 
tered  the  instructions.'  For  to  English  refinement  and  ingenuity,  may 
be  ascribed  the  noble  invention  of  the  gaffle  or  spur ;  by  the  aid  of 
which,  the  gallant  combatants  of  the  cockpit  mangle,  torture,  and  de 
stroy  each  other  ;  no  doubt  to  the  great  satisfaction  and  delight  of  ad 
miring  spectators.  Another  instance  of  our  barbarous  ingenuity  must 
not  be  omitted  No  other  nation  but  the  British  has  contrived  to  put 
in  practice  the  battle-royal  and  the  Welch-main.  In  th.>  former,  the 
spectator  may  be  gratified  with  the  display  of  numbers  of  game-cocks 
destroying  each  other  at  the  same  moment,  without  order  or  distinction. 
In  the  laiter,  these  courageous  birds  are  doomed  to  destruction  in  a 
more  regular,  but  not  le«s  certain  manner.  They  fight  in  pairs,  (sup 
pose  sixteen  in  number,)  and  the  two  lust  survivors  are  then  match 
ed  against  each  other;  so  that  out  of  thirty-two  birds,  thirty-one  must: 
be  necessarily  shughtered. 

"  Throwing  at  cocks,  is  another  specimen  of  unmeaning  brutality, 
confined  solely  to  our  own  country.  After  being  familiarized  to  the 
barbarous  destruction  of  this  courageous  bird  in  the  cockpit,  it  was 
only  advancing  one  step  further  in  the  progress  of  cruelty,  to  fasten  tins 
most  gallant  animal  to  a  stake,  in  order  to  murder  him  piece-meal. 

"  Bull-bailing,  during  the  16th  and  early  part  of  the  17th  century, 
was  not  confined  within  the  limits  of  a  bear  garden,  but  was  universally 
practised  on  various  occasions,  in  all  the  towns  and  villages  throHgh'nit 
the  kingdom.  In  many  places  the  practice  was  sanctioned  by  law,  and 
the  bull-rings,  affixed  to  large  stones  driven  into  the  ear'h,  remain  to 
this  clay,  as  memorials  of  this  legalized  species  of  barbarity. 

"Numbers of  bulls  were,  and  still  continue  to  be,  regularly  trained 
and  carried  about  from  village  to  village,  to  enter  the  lists  against  dog? 
bred  for  the  purpose  of  the  combat.  To  detail  all  the  barbarities  com 
mitted  in  these  encounters  would  he  a  disgusting  and  tedious  tafk.  All 
the  had  passions  which  spring  up  in  ignorant  and  depraved  minds,  arc 
here  set  afloat. 

"  At  a  bull  baiting  in  Staffordshire,  in  1799;  after  the  animalhad  been 
baited  by  single  dogs,  he  was  attacked  by  numbers,  let  loose  upon  him 
at  once.  Having  escaped  from  his  tormentors,  they  again  fastened  him 
to  the  ring;  and  with  a  view  either  of  gratifying  their  savage  revenge, 
or  of  better  securing  their  victim,  they  actually  cut  off  his  hoofs,  and 
enjoyed  the  spectacle  of  his  being  worried  to  death  on  his  bloody 
and  mangled  stumps." 

"  The  practice  of  bull-baiting,"  says  the  author  of  Espriella's  Letters, 
"  is  not  merely  permitted,  it  is  even  enjoined  by  the  municipal  law  in 
some  places.  Attempts  have  twice  been  made  in  the  legislature  to 
suppress  this  barbarous  custom  :  they  were  baffled  and  ridiculed  ;  and 
some  of  the  most  distinguished  members  were  absurd  enough,  and  hard 
hearted  enough  to  assert,  that  if  such  sports  were  abolished,  there 
would  be  an  end  of  the  national  courage.  The  bear  and  the  badger 
are  baited  with  the  same  barbarity  ;  and,  if  the  rabble  can  get  nothing 
else,  they  will  divert  themselves  by  worrying  cats  to  death." 

The  boldness  of  the  traveller  Fearon,  and  of  the  Quarterly  Review, 
in  attempts  to  degrade  the  American  character,  by  stories  of  gander 
pulling  in  Kentucky,  and  bear-baiting  at  New  Orleans,  must  be  apparent 
from  the  quotations  I  have  just  made ;  but  I  wish  to  show  further,  to 
what  they  expose  the  British  nation  by  authorizing  requital.  In  open 
ing  by  accident,  the  English  Monthly  Magazine,  for  Sept.  1803,  I  fell 
upon  the  article  which  I  am  about  to  transcribe.  The  character  of  the 


NOTES. 


473 


anthor  is  unknown  to  me ;  but  he  is  not  a  foreign  witness,  and  cannot   PART  I. 
be  suspected  of  a  wish  to  disparage  his  own  country.  '^^^-^^ 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Monthly  Magazine. 

"  SIR, 

"  It  has  been  remarked  by  some  author,  that  the  English  nation  is 
more  addicted  to  cruelty  than  any  other  enlightened  people  of  Europe, 
and  though  we  must  naturally  be  reluctant  in  admitting  a  charge  of 
so  disgraceful  a  nature,  yet  a  little  attention  to  what  is  passing  around 
us,  particularly  in  respect  to  our  own  indifference  to  the  sufferings  of 
the  brute  creation,  will,  I  fear,  rather  corroborate  than  refute  the  asser 
tion.  I  shall  confine  my  remarks  to  two  instances  of  diabolical  cruelty. 

"  A  gentleman  of  my  acquaintance  was  eye  witness  to  an  instance  of 
this  horrid  propensity,  near  Buxton ;  a  fellow  exhibited  a  bear  which  was 
tied  to  a  stake,  with  a  small  length  of  chain  allowed  ;  the  bear  was  not, 
however,  attacked  by  dogs,  as  usual,  but  by  monsters  in  human  shape, 
who  diverted  themselves  by  trundling  a  wheel  barrow  at  it — if  this  ma 
chine  struck  the  animal,  the  bear-ward  paid  6d.  to  him  who  twirled  the 
barrow,  and  if  it  missed,  (which  was  oftener  the  case,  as  the  poor  bear, 
from  woeful  experience,  had  acquired  considerable  dexterity  in  avoid 
ing  the  blow,)  then  the  bear-ward  received  6d. 

"  The  other  instance,  which  fell  within  my  own  observation,  seems 
'to  me  to  combine  more  associations  of  a  kind  disgraceful  to  human 
nature,  than  any  other  I  remember  ever  to  have  heard  of. 

"  As  I  passed  through  a  lane,  a  few  days  before  last  Shrove  Tuesday, 
I  observed  a  considerable  crowd  in  an  adjoining  field,  enjoying  some 
game,  in  which  a  number  of  boys  were  busily  engaged  ;  on  a  nearer  ap 
proach,  I  saw  ten  or  twelve  boys,  with  their  hands  tied,  pursuing  a 
cock,  the  wings  of  which  had  been  previously  clipped,  to  retard  its 
escape  ;  on  enquiry,  I  learnt  this  poor  creature  was  to  be  the  prize  of 
him  who  could  carry  it  off  to  a  certain  part  of  the  field,  in  his  teeth;  this, 
unfortunately  for  the  object  of  their  pursuit,  was  no  easy'task,  and  the 
scene  I  witnessed  in  its  prosecution  was  such,  as  surely  was  never 
equalled  in  the  annals  of  brutality. 

"  The^cock,  as  in  most  such  sports,  had  a  little  start  allowed,  when 
on  a  signal,  all  its  pursuers  gave  chace  ;  the  first  who  came  up  with  it, 
endeavourecf  to  stun  it  with  his  foot,  and  if  that  failed,  his  next  re 
source  was  to  fall  upon  it  with  his  body,  full  length,  in  which  position  he 
contrived  to^o:  his  teeth  in  some  part,  but  the  head  was  usually  prefer 
red,  as  the  animal  could  not  easily  retaliate  in  this  situation  !  sometimes 
all  these  bloodhounds  were  down  upon  or  near  the  pooT  cock  at  the  same 
time,  one  pulling  it  by  the  feet,  another  by  the  wings,  and  a  third  tugg 
ing  at'  its  head,  till  the  weakest  part  gave  way,  and  the  strongest  teeth 
bore  away  the  prize  in  triumph  ;  whilst  the  poor  creature  struggled  so 
violently,  as  at  times,  by  its  convulsions,  to  escape  for  a  moment,  the 
monster's  jaws ;  but  if  the  conqueror  proved  too  strong  to  prevent  this 
momentary  escape,  his  triumph  was  of  Very  shojft  duration,  for  by  the 
rules  of  this  game,  the  unsuccessful  followers  were  permitted  to  trip 
the  heels  of  the  hero  who  was  thus  bearing  away  the  prize,  which  they 
generally  contrived  to  do,  and  before  he  could  arrive  at  the  goal,  he 
was  usually  overthrown  by  his  pursuers,  who,  falling  upon  him  and 
each  other,  with  the  wretched  animal  in  the  midst  of  them,  resumed 
this  inhuman  struggle. 

"  To  the  disgrace  of  human  nature,  most  of  the  less  cruel  diversions 
which  I  have  mentioned,  are  conducted  by  men;  but  in  their  refine 
ments  upon  all  former  species  of  cruelty,  boys  are  selected,  and  en 
couraged  by  the  men,  and  taught  to  make  use  of  their  teeth  like  canni- 
ibals." 

(Signed,)         "  EGERTON  SMITH, 
"  of  Liverpool.'' 

VOL.  I.— 3  O 


474  NOTES. 

PART  I.  We  may  suppose  Mr.  Fearon,  but  not  the  Quarterly  Review,  to  be  ig- 
"s^*v^^  norant  of  the  speech  of  Lord  Erskine,  on  the  bill  which  he  introduced 
into  the  House  of  Lords  in  1809,  respecting1  cruelty  10  animals.  The 
Reviewers  ought  to  have  recollected  also,  the  fate  of  that  bill  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  where,  notwithstanding  the  disclosure  of  the  most 
horrid  barbaritu  s,  a  quorum  could  not  be  kept  to  secure  a  decent  re 
jection  in  the  forms.  The  speech  of  Lord  Erskine  to  the  Peers,  fur 
nishes  a  kind  of  evidence  which  cannot  be  got  over;  for  the  facts  ad 
duced  to  demonstrate  the  necessity  of  his  bill,  are  vouched  upon  the 
highest  responsibility.  The  humane  mover  said, 

"  He  could  bring  the  most  unexceptionable  testimony  to  their  lord 
ship's  bar,  to  prove  the  existences  of  such  practices  as  were  a  disgrace 
to  humanity,  to  a  civilized  nation ;  one  barbarous  practice  was,  the  cut 
ting  and  tearing  out  the  tongue  of  so  noble  an  animal  as  the  horse."* 

I  will  confine  myself  to  an  extract  in  addition,  from  this  speech,  in 
relation  to  the  treatment  of  that  "noble  animal,  the  horse,"  which 
treatment,  generally,  I  believe  to  be  more  savage  in  England,  than  in 
any  other  country  on  earth.  The  following  sta'ement  of  lord  Erskine, 
will  illustrate  also,  what  kind  of  meat  it  is  such  of  the  poor  of  England 
as  aspire  to  that  luxury,  usually  obtain. 

"  A  very  general  practice  prevails  of  buying  up  horses  still  alive,  buc 
not  capable  of  being  further  abused  by  any  kind  of  labour.  Thes>; 
horses,  it  appeared,  were  carried  in  great  numbers  to  slaughter  house.', 
but  not  killed  at  once  for  their  flesh  and  skins,  but  left  without  suste 
nance,  and  literally  starved  to  death,  that  the  market  might  be  gradually 
fed.  The  poor  animals  in  the  mean  time,  being  induced  to  eat  theii* 
own  dung,  and  frequently  knawing  one  another's  manes  in  the  agonies 
of  hunger."| 

I  cannot  refrain  from  noting  here  a  circumstance  connected  with  the 
treatment  of  horses  in  England,  which  I  find  stated  thus  in  one  of  the 
principal  newspapers  of  London. 


*  See  the  number  of  the  English  Sporting  Magazine,  for  June,  1819, 
for  an  atrocious  instance  of  this  practice. 

j"  Some  humane  person  has  returned  to  this  subject,  in  the  Sporting 
Magazine,  for  April,  1819,  and  given  the  following  account  of  the  same 
hideous  abomination  : 

"  Let  me  most  earnestly,  and  with  a  heart  affected  by  sadness  ami 
melancholy,  and  indignant  with  sensations  of  shame,  call  the  attention 
of  men  to  the  last  and  dreadful  stage  of  the  life  of  the  laborious  jhorse, 
which  has  spent  the  whole  of  his  strength,  and  \vasted  his  spirits  and 
his  blood  in  the  most  painful,  perhaps  the  most  excruciating  services. 
He  is,  in  the  metropolis  more  especially,  sold  in  his  aged,  worn  out,  and 
unpitied  state,  to  a  set  of  brutal,  unfeeling — infernal  savages!  as  any 
that  disgrace  and  shan^e  the  bosom  of  their  mother  earth — the  Hacker*, 
or  horse  butchers  :  men  whose  fierce  and  hardened  features,  and  blood 
stained  hands  and  bodies,  are  an  appalling  representation  of  their  horrid 
calling.  Their  places  are  dens  of  famine,  animal  misery,  and  torture, 
which  might  make  humanity  weep  tears  of  blood  !  Here  are  seen 
horses  worn  out  with  age  and  labour,  in  every  possible  state  of  decrepi 
tude  and  disease,  kept  alive  as  long  as  possible  for  the  convenience  of 
market,  lingering  under  all  the  horrors  of  famine,  to  the  degree  of  de 
vouring1  each  other's  manes,  from  excessive  hunger,  and  at  last  sinking 
to  the  earth,  one  after  the  other,  from  emptiness  and  weakness  !  Some 
of  them  may  have  been  purchased  in  the  country,  and  driven  longjour- 
nies,  with  barely  food  enough,  and  that  of  the  most  sordid  and  worth 
less  kind,  to  enable  them  to  stand  upon  their  legs." 


NOTES. 


475 


"December  29th,  1818.    This  clay  were  shot  at  the  Queen's  stables,-  PART  I, 
five  horses  belonging  to  her  late  majesty.  They  had  been  in  the  queen's  swx"VX»«' 
service  between  thirty  and  forty  years,  and  were  now  despatched  (being 
no  longer  able  to  do  hard  work)  to  prevent  their  falling  to  the  work  of 
dust  carts,  &c.  &c." 

Among  the  ancients  (barbarians  and  pagans !)  the  beasts  that  had 
been  employed  in  the  building  of  certain  temples,  were  ever  afterwards 
released  from  drudgery,  and  delicately  fed.  They  were  not  "des 
patched  to  prevent  their  falling  to  the  work  of  dust  carts."  When 
Julius  Caesar,  in  passing  the  Rubicon,  devoted  a  number  of  horses  to  the 
divinity  of  that  river,  he  set  them  free  to  rove  in  the  abundant  pastures 
in  its  neighbourhood. — Was  there  no  field  at  Frogmore,  in  which  the 
five  horses  which  had  served  her  majesty  for  thirty  or  forty  years,  could 
have  been  permitted  to  enjoy  the  remnant  of  their  existence  ;  if  not  as 
a  debt  of  humanity  to  them,  at  least  as  a  mark  of  respect  to  the  memory 
of  their  mistress  ?  The  lines  of  old  Ennius  furnish  a  lesson  to  her  ma 
jesty's  executors. 

Sicutfortis  equus,  spatio  qui  ssepe  supremo 
Vicit  Olympia,  mine  senio  confectu  guiescit 


(NOTE  S.    p.  258.) 

Dn.  Mitchell,  of  New  York,  has  made  the  following  mention  of  Go 
vernor  Golden,  in  his  Anniversary  Discourse  of  1813,  before  the  New 
York  Historical  Society. 

"Cadwallader  Golden  had  a  large  share  in  the  provincial  administra 
tion  of  New  York.  He  sent  to  Sweden,  for  his  correspondent,  the  dis 
tinguished  professor  at  Upsal,  a  collection  of  the  plants  growing  in  Ul 
ster  county  of  New  York,  and  accompanied  the  herbarium  with  de 
scriptions.  The  great  author  of  the  sexual  system  caused  the  descrip 
tions  to  be  printed,  and  in  his  several  publications  referred  to  them  as 
authorities.  Colden's  Catalogue  may  be  seen  in  the  Upsal  Transactions 
for  1743.  This  performance  displays  great  industry  and  skill,  and  justly 
places  the  author  among  the  botanical  worthies  of  North  America." 

Linnaeus  named  a  plant  of  the  tetrandous  class,  Coldeniu,  in  honour 
of  the  daughter  of  Golden.  The  historian  cultivated  mathematics  with 
distinguished  success,  and  maintained  a  correspondence  on  various 
branches  of  science  with  several  of  the  most  eminent  savans  of  Europe. 
In  the  year  1743,  he  suggested  and  explained  in  detail,  in  a  letter  to  Dr. 
Franklin,*  the  stereotype  method  of  printing.  The  process  which  he 
recommended,  is  the  same  as  that  practised,  and  said  to  have  been  in^ 
'  ented,  by  Mr.  Herhan  at  Paris. 


(NOTE  T.   p.  266.) 

THE  first  steam  boat  launched  in  the  Hudson  was  at  once  crowded 
with  passengers,  and  in  no  part  of  the  United  States  where  the  same 
mode  of  conveyance  appeared,  did  the  inhabitants  manifest  the  least 
hesitation  about  making  immediate  use  of  it.  Not  so  in  Great  Britain. 


See  the  letter  in  the  1st  vol.  of  the  New  York  Medical  Register 


476  NOTES. 

PART  I.    We  read  in  an  article  OH  steam  boats,  in  the  45th  vol.  ot"  Tillock's  Phi 
.^^^  -^  •  losophical  Magazine,  the  following  statement : 

"  At  first,  owing  to  the  novelty  and  apparent  danger  of  the  convey 
ance,  when  the  first  steam  boat  appeared  in  the  Clyde  in  1812,  the 
number  of  passengers  was  so  very  small,  that  the  only  steam  boat  or 
the  river  could  hardly  clear  her  expenses;  but  the  degree  of  success 
which  attended  that  attempt  soon  commanded  public  confidence." 

I  take  the  following  additional  illustrations  of  this  subject  from  a  mas 
terly  review  of  Colden's  Life  of  Fulton,  published  in  the  Analectu 
Magazine  for  Sept.  1817. 

*«  To  show  how  little  pretensions  the  English  have  to  this  discovery , 
we  lay  before  our  readers  the  following  extracts  from  the  best  and  mos : 
popular  of  the  monthly  publications  of  that  country. 

In  the  London  Monthly  Magazine  for  October,  1813,  p.  244,  it  i ; 
said,  "  We  have  made  it  our  special  business  to  lay  before  the  public,  all 
the  particulars  we  have  been  able  to  collect  relative  to  the  invention  of 
steam  passage  boats  in  America,  and  their  introduction  into  Great  Bri 
tain ;  because  we  consider  this  invention  as  worth  to  mankind  more  than 
a  hundred  battles  gained,  oi-  towns  taken,  even  if  the  victors  were  en 
gaged  in  a  war,  which  might  have  some  pretence  to  be  called  defensive 
and  necessary.  It  affords  us  great  satisfaction  to  be  able  to  lay  before 
our  readers  a  correct  description  of  the  Clyde  steam  boat,  obliging! 
communicated  to  us  by  Messrs.  Woods,  ship  builders  in  Port  Glasgow  . 
It  is  but  justice,  however,  to  those  gentlemen,  to  state,  that  they  candid 
ly  consider  the  steam  boats,  as  they  are  at  present  constructed,  (that  u. 
on  the  Clyde)  to  be  in  a  very  rude  state,  and  capable  of  great  improve 
ment. 

"The  boat  runs  in  calm  weather  four  or  four  and  a  half  miles  pe- 
hour ;  but  against  a  considerable  breeze,  not  more  than  three." 

In  the  Monthly  Magazine  for  November,  1813,  vol.  36,  p.  385,  an 
account  is  given  of  the  New  York  steam  boats  running  on  an  average, 
with  or  against  the  tide,  at  the  rate  "of  six  miles  an  hour,  with  the 
smoothness  of  a  Dutch  Streckshute." 

In  the  same  page  is  a  wooden  cut  of  the  Clyde  boat ;  and  a  note  of 
the  editors,  stating,  "that  the  inhabitants  of  the  populous  banks  of  the 
Thames  are  not  at  present  acquainted  with  steam  boats,  only  through 
our  descriptions  of  them." 

In  the  same  Magazine  for  January  1814,  p.  529,  is  a  proposal  to 
erect  a  company  for  the  purpose  of  building  steam  boats  to  navigaU 
the  Thames. 

In  the  Magazine  for  February  1814,  p.  29,  is  a  further  description  of 
the  American  steam  boats,  as  an  interesting  article  of  information. 

In  the  same  Magazine  for  April  1814,  a  further  account  of  American 
steam  boats  is  given  by  Mr.  Ralph  Dodd,  engineer,  who  had  visited 
them  in  this  country.  He  states  that  there  were  then  two  places  i;s 
Great  Britain  where  steam  boats  had  been  employed,  to  wit,  on  the 
river  Braydon,  between  Yarmouth  and  Norwich,  and  on  the  river  Clyde., 
between  Glasgow  and  Greenock  :  and  at  the  close  of  his  account,  he 
mentions  that  he  had  been  urging  the  use  of  this  mode  of  conveyance 
for  two  years  past,  and  was  happy  to  find  his  recommendations  realized. 

By  the  Monthly  Magazine  for  1814,  p.  358,  it  appears,  that  the  above 
named  Ralph  Dodd  had  succeeded  in  forming  a  company  to  build  steam 
boats  to  be  used  on  the  Thames ;  and  in  the  same  page  it  is  stated,  that 
the  Clyde  steam  boat  had  run  for  eighteen  months  past :  that  is,  the  first 
steam  boat  began  to  run  in  America  under  Fulton's  direction  in  1807, 
and  the  first  steam  boat  began  to  run  in  Great  Britain  in  or  about  tin- 
month  of  May,  in  the  year  1813,  six  years  after  they  had  been  in  full 
operation  in  this  country ;  in  all  probability,  if  it  had  not  been  for  Ful 
ton's  enterprise  and  ingenuity,  Great  Britain  would  not  have  had  a  ste*"1. 


NOTES. 


477 


boat  for  these  twenty  years  to  come.  He  showed  them  how  to  succeed.  PART  I. 
Yet  is  the  account  in  Rees's  Encyclopaedia  so  drawn  up,  as  if  the  whole  v^"V*x^ 
of  the  invention  was  owing  to  English  skill  and  enterprise. 

"  We  hear  much  (say  the  editors  of  the  Monthly  Magazine  for  April 
1813,  vol.  35,  p.  243)  of'the  proven  success  of  the  steam  passage  boats 
against  the  rapid  streams  of  the  great  rivers  in  America  :  yet  nothing  of 
the  kind  lias  yet  been  adopted  in  Great  Britain.  Are  we  to  succumb  to 
America  in  the  mechanic  arts  i"  This  was  true  ;  for  the  Clyde  boat  had 
not  begun  to  run  when  that  paragraph  was  written,  nor,  we  believe,  till 
at  least  a  month  after  it  was  published. 

"The  general  index  to  the  first  twenty  volumes  of  the  Edinburgh 
Review,  comprehending  the  month  of  October  1812,  has  not  an  article 
relating  to  steam  boats.  Yet  no  one  can  complain  that  the  editors  of 
that  work  are  not  sufficiently  alive  to  their  national  claims." 


(NOTE  U.  p.  275.) 

in  the  Discourse  of  Dr.  Mitchell,  of  New  York,  to  which  I  have  re 
ferred  in  Note  S.,  there  is  the  following  notice  of  James  Logan. 

"  I  have  a  copy  of  James  Logan's  '  Experimenta,  et  Meletemata  circa- 
generationem  plantarum.'  They  were  printed  at  London  in  Latin  and 
English.  He  relates  experiments  made  on  Indian  corn  to  prove  the 
prolific  nature  of  staminal  dust.  He  quotes  Dr.  Grew,  as  ascribing  to 
Mr.  Thomas  Millington  the  original  idea,  as  long  ago  as  1676,  that  plants 
have  sexes.  It  is  not  a  little  remarkable,  that  this  small  ti*act  is  more 
likely  to  perpetuate  the  author's  fame,  than  all  the  judicial  acts  of  his 
life." 

I  would  observe,  on  the  last  phrase  of  this  quotation,  that,  if  the 
learned  author  of  the  discourse  meant  to  disparage  the  judicial  acts 
of  Logan,  he  has  committed  a  signal  injustice,  or  spoken  without  due 
knowledge.  Logan's  judicial  career  was  one  of  great  integrity,  and 
utility  to  the  state.  As  Pennsylvania  was  divided  into  parties  for 
and  against  the  Proprietary,  and  as  this  early  friend  of  Penn  took  the 
lead  on  the  side  of  his  family,  he  became  obnoxious  to  keen  enmities, 
and  unsparing  detraction.  This  accounts  for  the  angry  proceedings  of 
the  House  of  Assembly  towards  him  from  time  to  time,  and  for  the  co 
lours  in  which  he  is  painted  in  the  Historical  Review  of  Pennsylvania,, 
published  in  London  to  counteract  the  Proprietary  interest  there .  I  am 
well  informed  that  Franklin,  the  author  of  the  Review,  acknowledged,  at 
a  distant  period,  that  Logan  had  been  represented  in  the  work  pursuant 
to  party  feelings  and  aims,  and  not  in  conformity  with  his  real  charac 
ter  and  services.  The  charges  which  Logan  delivered,  as  chief  justice 
of  Pennsylvania,  to  grand  juries,  are  of  singular  excellence.  He  appears 
in  them  not  only  as  a  watchful  guardian  of  the  domestic  weal,  and  as  a 
sagacious  director,  but  as  a  profound  moralist,  and  beautiful  writer. 
Such  subtile  disquisition,  and  lofty  speculation,  such  variety  of  know 
ledge,  and  richness  of  diction,  are  seldom  found  in  compositions  of  any 
kind.  Of  the  practical  lessons  which  he  inculcated,  I  am  induced  to 
quote  the  following,  from  a  charge  dated  April  13,  1736,  because  it  has 
a  curious  appositenessto  the  present  times  in  this  country,  and  contains 
maxims  of  universal  and  perpetual  validity. 

"  As  poverty,  and  the  want  of  money,  has  of  late  been  the  great  cry 
in  this  place  (Philadelphia)  ;  and  riches  have  been  shown  to  be  the  na 
tural  effects  of  sobriety,  industry,  and  frugality;  the  true  causes  of  this 
poverty  may  justly  deserve  a  more  near  and  strict  inquiry :  upon  which, 


478 


NOTES. 


PART  I.  the  case,  if  I  mistake  not,  will  appear  as  follows.  It  is  certainly  with  i*. 
v^~v*^/  state,  as  with  a  private  family  ;  if  the  disbursements  or  expenses  are 
greater  than  the  income,  that  family  will  undoubtedly  become  poorer. 
And,  in  the  same  manner,  if  our  importations  are  greater  than  our  ex 
ports,  the  country  in  general  will  sink  by  it.  This  has  been  our  case 
for  some  years  past,  owing,  in  a  great  measure,  not  only  to  the  badness 
of  the  commodity  we  exported,  to  the  great  injury  of  our  credit,  (which, 
notwithstanding,  is  now  in  some  degree  retrieved,  by  the  diligence  of 
one  officer,  and  the  country  will  undoubtedly  reap  the  advantages  of  it,) 
but  also  to  our  using  more  European  and  other  goods  than  we  can  pay 
for  by  our  produce,  or  perhaps  really  want;  and  then  the  balance  must 
be  paH  (if  'tis  ever  done)  in  money. 

"  These  are  the  open  and  avowed  reasons,  th  it  may  be  given,  for  our 
scarcity  of  coin :  but  as  to  our  poverty,  it  may  be  inquired,  whether 
there  be  not  yet  a  cause  ?  And  every  man  who  complains,  may  ask 
himself,  whether  he  has  been  as  industrious  and  frugal,  in  the  manage 
ment  of  his  affairs,  as  his  circumstances  required  ?  whether  credit  has 
not  hurt  him,  by  venturing  into  debt,  before  he  knew  how  to  pay  ?  and 
whether  the  attractions  of  pleasure  and  ease  have  not  been  stronger 
than  those  of  business  ?  but  Solomon  says,  He  that  loveth  pleasure,  shall 
be  a  poor  man :  and  he  that  loveth  wine  and  oil,  (that  is,  high  living,) 
shall  not  be  rich,  Prov.  21,  17.  He  tells  us  also,  elsewhere,  who  they 
are  that  shall  come  to  poverty,  and  what  it  is  that  clothes  a  man  with 
rags,  Prov.  23,  21.  ;  and  shows,  very  clearly,  that  the  ways  to  get  wealth 
were  the  very  same,  near  three  thousand  years  ago,  that  they  are  at 
this  day,  and,  probably,  they  may  continue  the  same  to  the  end  of  the 
world. 

"If  people  of  substance  cannot  employ  men  to  build,  or  by  other  means 
to  improve  the  country,  but  at  higher  rates  than  the  work  will  be  worth 
to  them  when  finished,  whether  'tis  to  be  let  or  sold,  such  workmen 
cannot  expect  employment,  but  poverty  must  come  as  one  that  travel- 
leth,  and  want  as  an  armed  man.  And  if  the  same  love  of  pleasure, 
wine,  and  oil,  still  continue  under  these  circumstances,  it  will  not  be 
difficult  to  find  a  cause  why  such  are  not  rich.  It  is  not  to  be  doubted, 
but  that  young  beginners  in  the  world  have  mistaken  their  own  condi 
tion  ;  have  valued  an  appearance,  and  run  too  easily  into  debt ;  and 
that  workmen  declining  labour  on  practicable  terms,  to  put  it  in  the 
power  of  others  to  employ  them,  and  yet  continuing  their  usual  expense ; 
it  is  not  to  be  doubted,  I  say,  but  that  great  numbers,  by  these  mea 
sures,  though  they  may  not  be  the  only  cause,  have  been  plunged  into 
distressed  circumstances,  of  which  they  themselves  will  not  see  the 
reason  :  but  being  uneasy  under  them,  they  repine,  and  grow  envious 
against  those  who,  by  greater  diligence  and  circumspection,  have  pre 
served  themselves  in  a  more  easy  and  safe  condition  of  life.  Such  peo 
ple  run  into  complaints  of  grievances;  cry  out  against  the  oppression 
of  the  poor,  though  perhaps  no  country  in  the  world  is  more  free  from 
it  than  ours;  they  grow  factious  and  turbulent  in  the  state  ;  are  for 
trying  new  politics,  and  like  persons  afflicted  with  distempers,  contracted 
through  vicious  habits,  who  are  calling  for  lenitives  to  their  pains,  but 
will  not  part  with  the  beloved  but  destructive  cause  ;  they  are  for  in 
venting  new  and  extraordinary  measures  for  their  relief  and  ease  ;  when 
it  is  certain,  that  nothing  can  prove  truly  effectual  to  them,  but  a  change 
of  their  own  measures,  in  the  exercise  of  those  wholesome  and  healing 
virtues  I  have  mentioned,  viz.  sobriety,  industry,  and  frugality  :  not  by 
contracting  new  debts,  for  this  is  a  constant  snare,  and  a  pit,  in  which 
the  unwary  are  caught ;  for  the  borrower,  we  are  told,  is  a  servant  to 
the  lender,  and  the  man  who  gives  surety  worketh  his  own  destruction  : 
for  why  (it  is  said)  should  he  (thy  creditor)  take  thy  bed  from  under 
thee  t  or,  which  amounts  to  the  same,  why  should  he  take  that  from  thce. 


NOTES.  479 

from  which  thou  must  gain  thy  bread,  or  the  place  on  which  thy  bed  PART  I. 
stands  ?  such  relief  is  but  a  snare  :  and  I  will  here  be  bold  to  say,  that  v^^  _^_. 
it  is  not  even  the  greatest  quantities  of  coin  that  can  be  imported  into 
this  province,  (unless  it  were  to  be  distributed  for  nothing.)  nor  of  any 
other  specie,  that  can  relieve  the  man  who  has  nothing  to  purchase  it 
with  ;  but  it  is  his  industry,  with  frugality,  that  must  ease  him,  and  enti 
tle  him  to  a  share  of  it. 


(NOTE  V.  p.  396.) 

The  petition  which  Lord  Nugent  presented  to  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  during  its  last  session  (1819),  on  the  part  of  the  English  Roman 
Catholics,  was  signed  by  10,300  persons,  among  whom  were  eleven 
peers,  thirteen  baronets,  and  three  hundred  gentlemen  of  landed  pro 
perty.  To  make  the  American  reader  acquainted  with  the  intent  of 
their  disfranchisement,  I  offer  the  following  extracts  from  some  of  their 
late  petitions  and  addresses,  as  preserved  in  a  valuable  work  published 
the  present  year  in  London,  and  entitled,  "  Historical  Memoirs  of  the 
English  Catholics,  by  Charles  Butler,  Esq." 

"  Several  disabling  and  penal  laws  sti/l  remain  in  force  against  English 
Catholics.  Still  are  civil  and  military  offices  denied  them  ;  still  are  they 
excluded  from  many  lines  in  the  profession  of  the  law  and  medicine"; 
still  are  some  avenues  to  commercial  wealth  shut  against  them  ;  still  is 
entrance  into  corporations  prohibited  to  them  ;  still  the  provisions  for 
their  schools  and  places  of  religious  worship  are  without  legal  security  ; 
still  they  are  disabled  from  voting  at  elections;  still  they  are  deprived  of 
eligibility  to  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons;  still  Roman  Catholic 
peers  are  excluded  from  their  hereditary  seats  in  the  House  of  Lords; 
and  still  Roman  Catholic  soldiers  and  sailors  are  legally  subject  to  heavy 
penalties,  and  even  to  capital  punishment >  for  refusing  to  conform  to  the 
religious  rites  of  the  established  church.  Each  of  these  penal  laws  has 
a  painful  operation  :  their  united  effects  is  very  serious.  It  meets  the 
Catholics  in  every  path  of  life  ;  makes  their  general  body  a  depressed 
and  insulated  cast ;  and  forces  every  individual  of  it  below  the  rank  in 
society  which  he  would  otherwise  hold.  Seldom,  indeed,  does  it  hap- 
pen,  that  a  Roman  Catholic  closes  his  life,  without  having  more  than 
once  experienced,  that  his  pursuits  have  failed  of  success,  or  that,  if 
they  have  succeeded,  the  success  of  them  has  been  greatly  lessened  or 
greatly  retarded,  or  that  his  children  have  lost  provision  or  preferment, 
in  consequence  of  his  having  been  a  Roman  Catholic." 

"  How  injurious  the  test  acts  are,  both  to  the  public  and  to  the  indi 
viduals  on  whom  they  operate,  appeared  in  1795 ;  in  which  year,  during 
the  then  great  national  alarm  of  invasion,  Lonl  Petre,  the  grandfather 
of  the  present  lord,  having,  with  the  express  leave  and  encouragement 
of  government,  raised,  equipped,  and  trained,  at  his  own  expence,  a 
corps  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  for  his  majesty's  service,  requested 
that  his  son  might  be  appointed  to  the  command  of  them  His  son's 
religion  was  objected,  his  appointment  refused,  and  another  person 
was  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  corps.  You  cannot  but  feel  how 
much  such  a  conduct  tended  to  discourage  the  Catholics  from  exertions 
of  zeal  and  loyalty  : — but,  the  noble  family  had  too  much  real  love  of 
their  country  to  resign  from  her  service,  even  under  these  circum 
stances.  His  lordship  delivered  over  the  corps,  completely  equipped, 
and  completely  trained,  into  the  hands  of  government,  and  his  son 
served  in  the  ranks." 

"In  the  last  Parliament,  (1816)  it  was  shown,  that  a  meritorious  pri- 


430 


NOTES. 


PART  f.  vate,  for  refusing,  (which  he  did  in  a  most  respectful  manner),  to  at- 
_^^_  -%_.  tend  divine  service  and  sermon  according  to  the  rights  of  the  establish- 
lished  church,  was  confined  nine  days  in  a  dungeon,  on  bread  and  wa 
ter." 

"  Thus  the  English  Catholic  soldiers  are  incessantly  exposed  to  the 
cruel  alternative  of  either  making  a  sacrifice  of  their  religion,  or  incur 
ring  the  extreme  of  legal  punishment;  than  which,  your  petitioners 
humbly  conceive,  there  never  has  been,  and  cannot  be  a  more  direct 
religious  persecution.  To  an  alternative,  equally  oppressive,  the  En 
glish  Roman  Catholics  are  exposed  on  their  marriages ;  the  law  re 
quires,  for  the  legal  validity  of  a  marriage  in  England,  that  it  should  be 
celebrated  in  a  parish  church ;  as  Roman  Catholics  believe  marriage  to 
be  a  sacrament,  the  English  Roman  Catholics  naturally  feel  great  re 
pugnance  to  a  celebration  of  their  marriages  in  other  churches  than 
their  own." 

With  regard  to  the  Irish  Roman  Catholics,  their  situation  is  worse. 
Their  disfranchisement  is  as  entire  in  substance,  and  much  more  galling 
in  its  operation,  than  that  of  the  American  negroes.  In  1812,  the  num 
ber  of  the  Irish  Catholics  was  estimated  at  4,200,000 ;  making  five 
sixths  of  the  whole  population  of  Ireland,  and  being  as  10  to  1,  in  the 
proportion  of  the  Protestants.  Their  clergy  amounted  to  upwards  of 
two  thousand.  The  following  representations  are  copied  from  a  very 
able  and  full  exposition  of  their  grievances  published  at  the  period  just 
mentioned.* 

If  a  Catholic  clergyman  happens,  though  inadvertently,  to  celebrate 
marriage  between  two  Protestants,  or  between  a  Protestant  and  a  Ca 
tholic,  (unless  already  married  by  a  Protestant  minister)  he  is  liable  by 
law  to  suffer  death. 

The  Catholic  clergy  are  unprotected  by  any  law,  prohibiting  the  dis 
turbance  of  Divine  service,  whilst  celebrated  by  them. 

The  Catholic  clergyman,  bound  by  his  vows  to  a  life  of  celibacy,  and 
generally  in  narrow  circumstances,  feels  the  harshness  of  being  held  li 
able  to  the  payment  of  a  modern  tax,  called  bachelor's  tax. 

The  Catholic  clergy  are  interdicted  from  receiving  any  endowment, 
or  permanent  provision,  either  for  their  own  support,  or  for  that  of  their 
houses  of  worship,  &c. 

Whilst  the  members  of  all  other  religious  persuasions  in  Ireland  are 
permitted  to  provide  for  the  permanent  maintenance  of  their  respective 
ministers  of  worship,  and  of  the  establishments  connected  with  their 
respective  tenets,  the  Catholics  alone  are  denied  this  permission.  Re 
proached,  as  they  frequently  are,  with  the  poverty  of  their  clergy,  the 
misery  of  their  people,  and  the  supposed  ignorance  of  their  poor,  they 
are  forbidden  by  law,  to  resort  to  the  necessary  measures  for  supply 
ing  these  deficiencies. 

In  Ireland,  the  Protestant  parishoners  actually  enjoy  the  privilege 
of  assembling  together,  under  the  name  of  Parish  Vestries,  to  the  exclu 
sion  of  the  Catholics,  of  legislating  and  of  imposing  such  yearly  land  tax 
upon  the  Catholics  as  they  may  think  proper,  for  the  alleged  purposes 
of  building,  repairing,  refitting,  &c.  Protestant  houses  of  worship — and 
of  providing  lucrative  occupation  for  each  other. 

The  people  of  Ireland,  already  pay  (as  a  plain  calculation  will  show) 
an  average  sum,  not  less  than  200/.  for  every  family,  that  frequents  the 
public  service  of  the  established  church :  or  in  other  words,  each  of 
these  families  now  costs  to  the  people  an  average  sum  of  200/.  yearly, 
for  its  religious  worship. 

*  Statement  of  the  Penal  laws,  which  aggrieve  the  Catholics  of  Ire 
land.  2d.  Edit.  Dublin. 


NOTES. 


481 


tt  The  Irish  parliament,  in  the  last  year  of  its  existence,  solemnly  or-  PART  I. 
ganized  a  powerful  inquisition,  the  Commission  of  Charitable  Bequests^  v^-v^^ 
vigilant  and  eager  in  the  pursuit  of  its  prey,  and  arrm-d  with  every  ne 
cessary  authority  for  discovering  and  seizing  the  funds  destined  by  dy 
ing  Ca'thoiics  for  the  maintenance  of  the  pious  and  the  poor  of  their  own 
communion,  and  appropriating  them,  when  seized,  to  the  better  mainte 
nance  of  the  Protestant  institutions." 

*'  Suffice  it  to  say,  respecting  the  general  conduct  of  this  hoard,  that 
their  zeal  and  activity  in  the  discharge  of  their  ungracious  functions, 
have  completely  succeeded  in  frustrating  every  attempt  of  the  Irish 
Catholics  to  provide  any  permanent  maintenance  for  the  ministers  of 
their  worship,  their  places  of  education,  or  other  pious  or  charitable 
foundations.'* 

"  No  Catholic  can  be  a  guardian  to  a  Protestant ;  and  no  Catholic 
priest  can  be  a  guardian  at  all.  Catholics  are  only  allowed  to  have  arms 
under  certain  restrictions ;  and  no  Catholic  can  be  employed  as  a  fowler, 
or  have  for  sale,  or  otherwise,  any  arms  or  warlike  stores.  No  Catho 
lic  can  present  to  an  ecclesiastical  living, — although  dissenters,  and 
even  Jews,  have  been  found  entitled  to  this  privilege.  The  pecuniary 
qualification  of  Catholic  jurors  is  made  higher  than  that  of  Protest 
ants." 

"The  number  of  Catholics  qualified  for  seats  in  the  legislature,  (if 
learning,  talents,  landed  estates,  or  commercial  wealth  be  admitted  as 
a  qualification)  probably  exceeds  thirty  thousand  persons.  These  men 
stand  personally  proscribed  by  the  existing  exclusion,  whilst  their  Pro 
testant  neighbours  find  every  facility  for  ready  admission." 

"Hence,  every  Protestant  feels  himself,  and  really  is,  more  firm  and 
secure  in  the  favour  of  the  laws,  more  powerful  in  society,  more  free 
in  his  energies,  more  elevated  in  life,  than  his  Catholic  neighbour  of 
equal  merit,  property,  talents,  and  education.  He  alone  feels  and  pos 
sesses  the  right  and  the  legal  capacity  to  be  a  legislator,  and  this  con 
sciousness  is  actual  power." 

"Whatever  may  be  the  wealth  of  the  Catholic,  his  talent,  or  his  ser 
vices,  he  is  uniformly  refused  a  place  upon  grand  juries  within  the  cor 
porate  towns ;  and  even  upon  petty  juries,  unless  when  the  duty  is 
arduous,  and  unconnected  with  party  interests.  He  more  than  doubts 
of  obtaining  the  same  measure  of  justice,  of  favour  or  respect,  from 
the  mayor,  recorder,  alderman,  tax  gatherer,  public  boards,  &c.  that  is 
accorded  to  his  Protestant  neighbour.  He  lives  in  continual  apprehen 
sion,  lest  he  or  his  family  may  become  objects  of  some  pecuniary  ex 
tortion,  or  victims  of  some  malicious  accusation.  Hence  he  is  cringing, 
dependant,  and  almost  a  suppliant,  for  common  justice." 

"Thus,  the  Catholic  leads  a  life  resembling  that  of  the  condemned 
Jeno }  of  no  account  personally  ;  but  partially  tolerated  for  the  sake  of 
outward  show ;  trampled  upon  individually ;  preserved  collectively — 
for  the  uses  of  others  ;  permitted  to  practise  commerce  and  agriculture 
for  the  benefit  of  public  revenue  ;  gleaning,  by  connivance,  a  little 
money  from  arduous  enterprises  and  intense  labours,  which  the  happier 
lot  of  the  privileged  class  enables  them  to  decline ;  but  never  to  be 
received  cordially  as  a-  citizen  of  the  town,  which  he  enriches,  and 
perhaps  maintains.'* 

''It  will  appear,  that  the  gross  number  of  offices  and  situations,  from 
which  the  class  of  penal  laws,  concerning  corporate  offices,  excludes 
the  Catholics,  may  be  considered  as  amounting — 

"  Directly,  and  by  express  enactment,  to  about          -        2548 
"  Consequentially,  to  about        -        -        ->        '."  1200 

"Total        -        .        .     .- *, •'    -.        .        3748" 
VOL.  I.— 3  P 


482  NOTES. 

PART  1.         "The  judicial  situations,  controlling  the  entire  administration  of 
•y^"V^/  justice  in  Ireland,  are  at  present  monopolized  by  the  Protestants ;  and, 
under  the  existing  laws  and  system,  they  must  continue  to  be  occupied 
by  Protestants  alone." 

"There  appears  to  be  a  total  number  of  nearly  1500  offices  connect 
ed  with  the  profession  and  administration  of  the  laws,  which  are  inter 
dicted  to  the  Catholics,  either  by  the  express  letter,  or  by  the  necessary 
operation,  of  the  present  penal  code." 

"  One  hundred  and  sixty  legal  offices,  of  honour  and  of  emolument, 
are  inaccessible  to  Catholic  barristers,  and  open  to  Protestants.  Thir 
teen  hundred  other  offices  are  reserved  solely  for  the  ruling  class,  to 
the  exclusion  of  Catholic  students,  solicitors,  attorneys,  clerks,  &c.  &c." 

"Throughout  the  entire  post  office,  established  in  Ireland,  for  in 
stance,  consisting  of  several  hundred  persons,  there  is  scarcely  a  single 
Catholic  to  be  found  in  a  higher  situation  than  that  of  a  common  letter- 
carrier;  and  few  of  even  this  class.  The  like  may  be  affirmed  of  the 
stamp-office,  bank  of  Ireland,  and  the  other  public  boards  and  establish 
ments  of  Ireland." 

"Although  not  disqualified  by  an  express  statute,  yet  the  Catholic 
physicians,  surgeons,  apothecaries — not  inferior  in  learning,  skill,  expe 
rience  or  character,  to  those  of  any  other  persuasion — are  practically 
excluded  from  medical  honours  and  public  situations — and  especial 
ly  from  medical  appointments  of  emolument  or  credit,  within  the  in 
fluence  of  the  crown,  or  of  the  numerous  departments  connected  with 
the  state." 

"  We  do  not  read  the  name  of  any  Catholic  amongst  the  physicians, 
surgeons,  druggists,  or  apothecaries,  attached  to  the  military  or  naval 
departments." 

"The  law  presumes  every  Catholic  to  be  faithless,  disloyal,  unprinci 
pled,  and  disposed  to  equivocate  upon  his  oath — until  he  shall  have  repelled 
this  presumption  by  his  sworn  exculpation — in  public  court." 

"  That  there  exist  in  Ireland  numerous  splendid  establishments,  bear 
ing  the  plausible  profession  of  public  education,  is  sufficiently  known, 
From  the  extensive  scale  and  pompous  exterior  of  the  buildings,  from 
the  numerous  train  of  officers  and  heavy  annual  charge — a  stranger 
might  infer  the  existence  of  ample  and  liberal  public  instruction  in  Ire 
land — but,  upon  a  nearer  view,  he  will  be  quickly  undeceived. 

"  These  seminaries  are  closed,  by  law  or  by  usage,  against  the  Catho 
lics.  They  are  founded,  generally  speaking,  upon  strict  and  exclusive 
Protestantism — upon  abhorrence  of  Popery — and  upon  the  inculcation 
of  doctrines,  breathing  personal  imputation  and  indirect  hostility  against 
the  Catholic  population." 

"Protestant  families  will  not,  in  general,  take  Catholic  servants. 
Every  newspaper  contains  advertisements  for  servants,  signifying  thai 
they  must  not  be  Catholics." 

. "  In  yeoman  corps,  (armed,)  with  very  few  exceptions,  no  Catholics 
are  admitted." 

"In  the  country  corps,  the  bigotry  of  the  captains  generally  excludes 
Catholics ;  and,  even  when  the  captains  would  wish,  for  the  appearance 
of  these  corps,  to  mix  a  few  stout  comely  Catholics  in  it,  the  bigotry  of 
the  privates  interferes  to  prevent  it — as,  in  most  instances,  they  would 
resign,  if  such  a  measure  were  persisted  in." 

"In  many  towns  in  Ireland,  there  are  convivial  societies,  amongst 
whom  it  it  a  rule  to  exclude  Catholics." 

"In  many  counties,  Protestants  will  not  visit  a  Catholic ;  and  it  is  tlu 
fashion  to  speak  of  them  in  the  most  injurious  and  degrading  terms." 

"  The  Catholics  can  feel,  and  do  suffer." 

"The  very  peasantry  acutely  feel  the  stigma  cast  by  government  upon 
their  sect  and  their  religion.  The  lowest  order  even  suffer  most.  The 


NOTES. 


483 


wealthy  Catholics  acquire  a  degree  of  consideration  and  legal  security  PART  I. 
from  their  property  ;  but  the  peasantry  are  left  naked  to  the  pelting  of  x^-v^W 
the  storm,  to  all  the  jibes  and  jobs  of  Protestant  ascendancy." 

"Not  only  a  Protestant  lord  looks  down  upon  a  Catholic  lord,  and  a 
Protestant  gentleman  on  a  Catholic  gentleman,  but  a  Protestant  peasant 
on  a  Catholic  peasant;  and,  in  proportion  as  the  degrading  scale  de 
scends,  the  expression  of  contempt  becomes  more  marked  and  gross." 


(NOTE  W.  p.  39r.) 

MR.  Fearon  relates  a  story  of  negro  flagellation,  which  he  pretends 
to  have  witnessed  in  Kentucky,  and  from  which  it  might  be  inferred, 
that  the  general  treatment  of  the  slaves  in  that  state  is  barbarous.  The 
inference  would  involve  a  great  injustice ;  for,  their  condition  is  emi 
nently  good  in  Kentucky,  as  I  myself  know  from  personal  observation, 
and  as  every  candid  traveller  who  has  had  the  same  opportunity  of  judg 
ing,  will  acknowledge.  They  have  there,  an  abundant  provision  of  ex 
cellent  food  ;  their  labour  is  light ;  and  the  recreations  in  which  they 
are  indulged,  give  a  particular  hilarity  to  their  carriage.  We  have  ano 
ther  F.nglish  writer  of  travels,  Lieutenant  Hall,  who  has  assigned  a 
chapter  specially  to  the  negro  slavery  of  the  United  States,  and  passed 
general  sentence,  confessing  at  the  same  time,  that  "  information  as  to 
the  condition  of  the  negroes,  in  point  of  fact,  is  little  attainable  by  a 
cursory  traveller."  He,  it  would  seem,  only  traversed  Virginia,  North 
Carolina,  and  a  part  of  South  Carolina,  rapidly,  in  the  stage  coach,  and 
by  the  main  road.  As  he  passed  along,  in  the  night,  he  saw  the  "  fire 
light  shining  through  some  of  the  negro  huts,"  from  which  he  inferred, 
that  they  were  universally  without  sufficient  shelter  from  the  inclemen 
cy  of  the  season.  Wood,  he  acknowledges,  they  might  have  in  plenty  ; 
but  then  "  they  must  have  their  night's  rest  perpetually  broken  by  the 
obligation  of  keeping  up  their  fires."  How  happy  would  be  the  poor 
in  England,  if  they  were  subjected  to  the  same  obligation  ! 

This  traveller  moans,  too,  over  the  diet  of  the  negroes  in  the  lower 
parts  of  South  Carolina — rice,  Indian  meal,  and  dried  fish  !  He  does  not 
deny,  that  they  are  amply  supplied  with  the  two  first  articles.  Poultry, 
he  says,  they  may  raise ;  but  we  know  that  they  do  raise  it  in  abun 
dance,  and  either  consume  it  themselves,  or  by  the  sale  of  it,  procure 
gratifications  untasted  by  the  British  labourer.  If  the  subsistence  upon 
rice  be  so  calamitous  a  lot,  there  is  enough  to  engross  the  compassion  of 
an  Englishman,  in  the  fate  of  the  vast  majority  of  the  population  sub 
ject  to  the  British  power  in  India.  It  is  only  on  the  rice  lands,  and  ge 
nerally  near  the  coast,  that  the  negroes  of  Carolina  are  stinted  as  to 
animal  food  :  in  what  is  called  the  upper  country,  it  is  given  to  them 
in  sufficient  quantity  for  a  daily  and  plentiful  meal.  Throughout  the 
slave-holding  states,  there  are  differences  in  the  living  of  the  blacks, 
according  to  the  greater  or  less  productiveness  of  the  soil,  the  nature 
of  the  staple  product,  &c.  But  no  where  are  they  without  wholesome 
victuals,  adequate  to  the  demands  of  the  appetite,  and  the  support  of 
the  frame  in  its  full  vigour.  Lieutenant  Hall  remained  a  few  weeks  at 
Charleston,  and  there  picked  up  some  stale  anecdotes  about  the  op 
pression  of  the  negroes.  He  found  a  Socrates  in  the  black  cook  of  a 
vessel,  condemned  to  death  for  poisoning  the  crew  ;  and  has  made  a 
most  ridiculous  romance  of  the  affair.  Of  the  kidnapping  of  free  ne 
groes,  he  heard  something,  and  is  moved,  of  course,  to  high  indigna 
tion  and  rebuke.  I  do  not  deny  the  atrocity  of  the  crime,  as  odious  to 


484 


NOTES. 


PART  T.  Americans  in  general  as  it  can  be  to  foreigners;  but  it  has  more  than 
v^^y^^t  one  direct  parallel  in  England,  to  divert  the  anger  and  denunciations  of 
her  sons  from  this  unlucky  country.  Possibly,  our  traveller  may  have 
heard  of  a  practice,  which  Sir  James  Mackintosh  has  described  as  "  a 
flourishing  though  accursed  trade,"*  false  accusation — the  swearing 
away  the  life  or  liberty  of  an  innocent  person,  for  the  sake  of  the  re 
ward  called  blood  money.  I  will  make  the  reader  further  acquainted 
with  it  by  a  few  extracts  from  the  debates  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

"  Mr.  Bennet  said,  (March  2,  1818,)  that  he  was  convinced  he  was 
not  exaggerating,  when  he  averred,  that  it  had  been  a  long  established 
practice  in  this  country,  (England,)  for  individuals,  day  after  day,  year 
after  year,  to  stimulate  others  to  the  commission  of  crime,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  putting  money  in  their  pockets  by  their  conviction." 

"  Mr.  Bennet  said,  (April  13,  1818,)  that  in  many  cases,  false  evi 
dence  was  given  by  police  officers,  in  order  to  bring  the  otFence  within 
the  reach  of  the  remuneration.  Mr.  Shelton,  the  clerk  of  the  arraigns 
at  the  Old  Builey,  slated,  that  too  frequently  these  officers  endeavoured 
to  stretch  the  point,  with  the  view  of  sharing  in  the  price  of  blood, 
The  calendars  of  the  criminal  courts  established  the  same  conclusion. 

"  Fixed  rewards  had  long  been  the  great  blot  in  our  system  of  cri 
minal  procedure. 

"  All  the  persons  who  were  connected  with  the  police  acknowledg 
ed,  that  the  principle  of  the  present  system  was  bad,  and  that,  from 
the  beginning  of  it  to  the  end,  instead  of  checking  or  controlling  crime,- 
it  operated  as  a  bounty  to  base  and  designing  men,  who  went  about, 
not  merely  to  tempt  adults  to  the  commission  of  crime,  but  (which  was 
the  most  famentable  fact,)  to  train  up  children  to  be  criminals.  Children 
of  nine  or  ten  y  ears  of  age,  instead  of  being  indicted,  as  they  ought  to  be, 
for  picking  pockets,  were  frequently,  in  hopes  of  the  reward,  indicted 
for  high-way  robberies.  Not  many  months  ago,  two  children,  one  thir- 
teen,~the  other  nine  years  of  age,  were  convicted  of  highway  robbery, 
one  of  the  witnesses  being  a  child  of  six  years  of  age ;  although  he 
was  as  sure  as  he  stood  there,  that  were  it  not  for  the  system  of  re 
wards,  their  offence  would  never  have  been  ranked  so  high. 

"  The  Bank  was  known  to  give  a  reward  of  71.  on  the  conviction  ot 
persons  for  passing  bad  money;  and  this  very  circumstance  was  the 
cause  of  a  great  number  of  the  convictions  which  took  place  for  that 
offence.  A  great  many  poor  Germans,  Swedes,  and  Irishmen,  who 
were  ignorant  of  the  English  language,  were  entrapped  into  the  pass 
ing  of  bad  coin,  by  persons  whose  only  object  was,  the  getting  of  the 
reward  offered  in  consequence." 

"  Mr.  Alderman  Wood  expressed  his  conviction,  (April  21,  1818,) 
that  nine  out  of  ten  of  the  prosecutions  for  forgery  in  London,  origi 
nated  with  persons  who  were  paid  for  exciting  others  to  commit  the 
crime.  This  he  was  enabled  to  state,  from  official  experience  and  au 
thentic  information." 

The  kidnapping  of  children  for  the  purpose  of  converting  them  into 
beggars  and  thieves,  or  of  selling  them  to  those  who  are  engaged  in  the 
lowest  and  most  disgusting  callings  of  civilized  life,  is  of  more  frequent 
occurrence  in  England,  than  the  kidnapping  of  free  negroes  in  the 
United  States.  Cases  of  child  stealing,  accompanied  with  circumstances 
of  monstrous  barbarity,  are  daily  announced  in  the  English  gazettes.  I 
will  illustrate  the  fact  and  the  process,  by  some  quotations  from  the  Re 
port  of  the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  concerning  chimney 
sweepers. 

"Children  are  sometimes  sold  by  their  parents  to  master  chimney 
sweepers,  and  oftentimes  they  are  stolen.  These  children  are  very 

*  House  of  Commons,  May  4, 1818. 


NOTES.  485 

hable  to  cough  and  inflammation  of  the  chest,  from  their  being  out  at  all    p  ART  I. 
hours,  and  in  all  weathers  :  tnese  are  generally  increased  by  the  wretch-  \^*v^^ 
tdness  of  tneir  haohations,  as  they  too  frequently  have  to  sleep  in  a 
shed  exposed  to  the  changes  of  the  weather,  their  only  bed  a  soot  bag, 
and  another  to  cover  them,  independent  of  their  tattered  garments. 

"They  are  very  subject  to  burns,  from  their  being  forced  up  chim 
neys  while  on  fire,  or  soon  af;er  they  have  been  on  fire,  and  while  over 
heated  ;  and,  however  they  may  cry  out,  their  inhuman  musters  pay  not 
the  least  attention,  but  compel  them,  too  often  with  horrid  imprecations, 
to  proceed.  They  are  sometimes  sent  up  chimneys  on  fire. 

"  It  is  in  eviaence  before  your  committee,  that  at  Hadleigh,  Barnet, 
Uxbridge,  and  Windsor,  female  diildren  have  been  employed. 

"it  is  also  in  fvidencr,  mat  the)  are  stolen  from  their  parents,  and  in 
veigled  out  of -workhouses  ;  thai,  in  order  to  conquer  the  natural  repug 
nance  of  the  infants  to  ascend  the  narrow  and  dangerous  chimneys,  to 
clean  wu:ch  their  labour  is  required,  blows  are  used;  that  pins  ure  forced 
into  their  feet  by  the  boy  thai  follows  thorn  up  the  chimney,  in  order  to 
cornjjel  them  to  ascend  it ;  and  that  lighted  straw  has  been  applied  for 
that  purpose;  that  the  children  are  suoject  to  sores  and  bruises,  and 
wounds  and  burns  on  their  thighs,  knees,  and  elbows ;  ana  tnat  it  will 
require  many  months  before  the  extremities  of  the  elbows  and  knees 
become  sufficiently  hard  to  resist  the  excoriations  to  which  they  are  at 
first  subject. 

"  But  it  is  not  only  the  early  and  hard  labour,  the  spare  diet,  wretch 
ed  lodging,  and  harsh  treatment,  whi.-h  is  the  lot  of  tiuse  children,  but, 
in  general,  they  are  kept  almost  entirely  destitute  of  education,  and 
moral  or  religious  instruction;  they  form  a  sort  of  class  by  themselves, 
and  from  their  work  being  done  early  in  the  day,  they  are  turned  into 
the  streets  to  pass  their  time  in  idleness  and  depravity  :  thus  they  be 
come  an  easy  prey  to  those  whose  occupation  it  is  to  delude  the  igno 
rant  and  entrap  the  unwary  ;  and  if  their  constitution  is  strong  enough 
to  resist  the  diseases  and  deformities  which  are  the  consequences  of 
their  trade,  and  that  they  should  grow  so  much  in  stature  as  no  longer 
to  be  useful  in  it,  they  are  cast  upon  the  world  at  the  age  of  about  six 
teen,  without  any  means  of  obtaining  a  livelihood,  with  no  habits  of  in 
dustry,  or  rather,  what  too  frequently  happens,  with  confirmed  habits  of 
idleness  and  vice." 

The  strong  nerves  of  the  English  travellers  would  not  tremble  at  these 
things.  It  is  the  kidnapping  of  the  negro  that  makes  their  flesh  creep, 
and  disturbs  their  repose.  So  too,  they  are  in  transports  of  philanthropic 
ruge,  with  the  negro  driving  ,•  an  abominable  trade  and  spectacle,  no 
doubt,  but  which  has  its  counterpart  in  England,  to  be  witnessed  at  all 
times  throughout  that  land  of  freedom.  "  The  English,"  says  Mr. 
Southey,  (Espriella's  Letters,  letter  26)  "  boast  of  their  liberty,  but 
there  is  no  liberty  in  England  for  the  poor.  They  are  no  longer  sold 
with  the  soil,  it  is  true ;  but  they  cannot  quit  the  soil  if  there  be  any 
probability  or  suspicion  that  age  or  infirmity  may  disable  them.  If,  in 
such  a  case,  they  endeavour  to  remove  to  some  situation  where  they 
hope  more  easily  to  maintain  themselves,  where  work  is  more  plentiful, 
or  provisions  cheaper,  the  overseers  are  alarmed,  the  intruder  is  ap 
prehended,  as  if  he  were  a  criminal,  and  sent  back  to  his  own  parish. 
Whenever  a  pauper  dies,  that  parish  must  be  at  the  cost  of  his  funeral : 
instances  therefore,  have  not  been  -wanting,  of  -wretches  in  the  last  stage  of 
dise  se,  having  been  hurried  away  in  an  open  cart,  upon  straw,  and  dying 
upon  the  road.  Nay,  even  women  in  the  very  pains  of  labour,  have  been 
driven  out,  and  have  perished  by  the  way  side,  because  the  birth-place 
of  the  child  would  be  its  parish." 

I  can  furnish  more  recent,  though  certainly  not  more  authentic  testi 
mony.  Mr.  Simon,  in  his  "  Journal  of  a  Tour  in  Great  Britain,"  (1815) 


486 


NOTES. 


PART  I.  speaking  of  the  Poor  Laws,  proceeds  thus  :  "  Among  the  necessary 
V^-v^,/  consequences  of  tliis  system,  is  a  multiplicity  of  vexatious  laws  repect- 
ing  settlements,  by  which  the  right  of  removing  at  pleasure,  from  one 
part  of  the  country  to  another,  is  so  abridged,  as  to  attach,  in  a  great 
degree,  the  labouring  class  to  the  glebe,  as  the  Russian  peasant  is. 
Perhaps,  being  bound  to  provide  each  for  their  own  poor,  it  becomes  a 
matter  of  importance  to  prevent  new  comers  from  acquiring  a  settlement 
by  removal  to  a  new  parish  ;  and  the  poor  are  repulsed  from  one  to  the 
other  like  infected  persons  They  are  sent  back  from  one  end  of  the  kingdom 
to  the  other,  as  criminals  formerly  in  France,  de  brigade  en  brigade.  You 
meet  on  the  high  roads,  Iivillnot  say  often,  but  too  often,  an  old  man  on  foot, 
with  his  littie  bundle, — a  helpless  widow,  pregnant  perhaps,  and  two 
or  three  barefooted  children  following  her,  become  paupers  in  a  place 
where  they  had  yet  not  acquired  a  legal  right  to  assistance,  and  sent 
away  on  that  account,  to  their  original  place  of  settlement,  in  the  mean 
time,  by  the  overseers  of  the  parishes  on  their  way."  (V  oJ.  i.  p.  224.) 

Mr.  Sturges  Bourne,  in  proposing  to  the  House  of  Commons,  (March 
25,1819)  his  bill  to  regulate  the  settlement  of  the  Poor,  pointed  out 
emphatically,  the  notorious  practice  of  "sending  back  old  paupers  to 
their  original  parish,  after  they  had  spent  their  youth  and  labour  else 
where  ;  tearing  them  from  their  friends  and  neighbours."  He  dwelt 
upon  "the  extreme  hardship  upon  the  paupers,  who,  having  resided 
many  years,  and  formed  connexions,  were  sent  home  to  their  parishes, 
and  separated  from  all  their  friends  and  consolations  to  die  in  a  remote 
poor  house."* 

The  American  negro  may,  for  aught  I  know,  have  much  more  sensi 
bility  than  the  English  pauper;  but  I  should,  at  first  view,  think  the 
fate  of  the  latter,  thus  torn  up  by  the  roots,  as  it  were,  and  transplanted 
to  "  a  hot  bed  of  vice  and  wretchedness,"  as  the  poor-house  is  styled 
in  the  Parliamentary  Reports,  quite  as  severe  and  barbarous,  and  as  dis 
graceful  to  the  country  in  which  it  is  undergone,  as  that  of  the  "  driven" 
slave.  In  the  history  of  civilized  life,  there  is  nothing  more  abomina 
ble  than  the  warfare  carried  on  by  the  parishes  in  England  against  the 
poor,  (See  the  ensuing  Note). 


(NOTE  X.  p.  411.) 

I  WISH  the  American  reader  to  be  able  to  make  an  immediate  compa 
rison  between  the  condition,  physical  and  moral,  of  our  negroes,  and 
that  of  the  labouring  poor  of  England.  1  will,  therefore,  place  before 
him  a  number  of  paragraphs  concerning  the  latter,  drawn  from  the 
Treatise  of  Colquhoun  on  Indigence,  Espriella's  Letters,  by  Mr.  South ey, 
and  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  the 
Poor  Laws  of  the  year  1817.  I  should  premise  that  the  statements  of 
Colquhoun  and  Southey  were  made  in  1806  and  1807,  and  that  a  great 
aggravation  of  all  the  evils  of  which  they  complain  is  admitted,  on  all 
hands,  to  have  taken  place  within  the  few  years  past. 

COLQUHOUN. 

"It  has  been  shown  that  above  one  million  of  individuals  (1,234,768) 
in  a  country  containing  less  than  nine  millions  of  inhabitants,  have  de 
scended  into  a  state  of  indigence,  requiring  either  total  or  partial  sup 
port  from  the  public." 

"  A  very  large  proportion  of  this  mass  of  indigence  is  to  be  traced  to 
the  bad  education,  and  particularly  to  the  vicious  and  immoral  habits  of 
the  inferior  ranks  of  the  people." 

*  In  1803,  the  number  of  vagrants  removed,  was  194,052. 


NOTES.  487 

"  A  prodigious  number  among  the  labouring  classes  cohabit  together   PART  I. 
without  marriage,  and  again  separate  when  a  difference  ensues ;  and 
their  miserable  offspring,  from  neglect,  are  rarely  reared  to  maturity." 

"  The  morals  of  the  inferior  classes  of  society  have  been  greatly  ne 
glected.  Vicious  habits,  idleness,  improvidence,  and  sottisimess,  pre 
vail  in  so  great  a  degree,  that  until  a  right  bias  shall  have  been  given  to 
the  minds  of  the  vulgar,  joined  to  a  greater  portion  of  intelligence  in 
respect  to  the  economy  of  the  poor,  one  million  of  indigent  will  be 
added  to  another,  requiring  permanent  or  partial  relief,  producing 
ultimately  such  a  gangrene  in  the  body  politic  as  to  threaten  its  total 
dissolution." 

"  It  will  be  seen  also  from  late  publications,  that,  after  making  very 
large  allowances,  at  least  1,750,000  of  the  population  of  the  country,  at 
an  age  to  be  instructed,  grow  up  to  an  adult  state  without  any  instruc 
tion  at  all,  in  the  grossest  ignorance,  and  without  any  useful  impression 
of  religion  or  morality." 

"  Innocent  and  culpable  vagrancy  are  confounded  together,  and  the 
virtuous  and  vicious  mendicant  are  subject  to  the  same  punishment. 
Persons  wandering  abroad  and  begging  are  by  law  to  be  -whipped  or 
imprisoned." 

"  In  many  places,  the  workhouses  on  a  small  scale  will  be  found  to 
be  abodes  of  misery,  which  defy  all  comparison  in  human  wretched 
ness." 

"  To  innocent  indigence  they  are  all  gaols  without  guilt — punishment 
without  crime." 

"A  working  man  may  now  go  where  he  pleases,  with  his  family,  and 
exert  his  labour  where  it  may  be  most  advantageous  to  him,  as  long  as 
he  can  avoid  asking  parish  relief;  but  if,  from  sickness,  accident,  or  any 
affliction,  depriving  him,  even  for  a  short  period,  of  the  power  of  sup- 1 
porting  his  family,  he  is  compelled  to  solicit  aid  from  the  parish,  he  is 
from  that  moment  in  a  situation  to  be  legally  removed,  to  that  from 
which  he  came  originally  ;  and  when  so  removed,  he  must  never  again 
return  to  the  parish  where  he  was  in  a  situation  to  gain  a  subsistence, 
on  pain  of  being  treated  as  a  rogue  and  a  vagabond" 

"  The  constant  interferences  respecting  settlements  have  unquestion 
ably  given  a  most  injurious  bias  to  the  minds  of  the  labouring  people. 
In  the  various  disputes  about  who  shall  afford  them  an  asylum,  they  have 
been  led  to  conceive  that  exertion  and  industry  become  less  necessary, ' 
since  the  parish  to  which  they  belong  is,  under  every  circumstance, 
compelled  to  maintain  them." 

"The  frequency  of  these  interferences  on  the  part  of  parish  officers, 
and  the  multitudes  ivho  have  been  carted  from  place  to  place,  ivith  their  chil- 
dren,  have  tended  in  no  small  degree  to  generate  vagrancy,  since  they 
are  always  unwelcome  guests  in  the  receiving  parishes.  With  charac 
ters  thus  degraded  and  rendered  doubtful,  and  often  without  a  single 
relation  or  acquaintance  in  the  place  which  has,  thfough  the  refinements 
upon  the  law,  been  deemed  their  settlement,  what  are  they  to  do  ? 
The  parish  officers  have  provided  no  means  of  employing  them  ;  and 
for  their  labour,  their  only  means  of  subsistence,  they  can  find  no  pur 
chaser,  and  yet  they  dare  not  return  to  the  parish  where  they  could  be  useful 
to  themselves  and  their  country" 

"  In  this  situation,  unable  to  exist  on  the  scanty  pittance  afforded  by 
the  parish,  and  without  the  means  of  filling  up  the  chasm  by  their  own 
industry,  their  characters  assume  a  new  and  degraded  form,  and  where 
not  irnmured  in  a  workhouse,  they  have  no  resource  but  to  resort  to 
the  miserable  alternative  of  hazarding  a  more  degrading  punishment  by 
asking  alms,  where  absolute  infirmity  does  not  establish  a  claim  to  full 
subsistence." 


488  WOTES. 

PART  I  SOUTHEY. 

-  _^-  .  -%_ •  "  The  dwellings  of  the  labouring1  manufacturers  are  in  narrow  street: 
and  lanes,  blocked  up  from  light  and  air,  and  crowded  together  because 
every  inch  of  land  is  of  such  value,  that  room  for  light  and  air  cannot  bt 
afforded  them  Here  in  Manchester  a  great  proportion  of  the  poor  louge 
in  cellars,  damp  ..ml  dark,  where  every  kind  of  filth  is  suffered  to  a  cu 
mulate,  because  no  exertions  of  domestic  care  can  ever  make  such  homes 
decent.  These  places  arc  so  many  hot-beds  of  infection;  and  .he  poor 
in  large  towns  are  rarely  or  never  without  an  infectious  fever  among 
them,  H  pL'.gue  of  their  o\\  n,  which  leaves  the  habitations  of  the  rich, 
like  a  Goshen  of  cleanliness  and  comfort,  unvisited." 

"  \Vnen  the  poor  are  incapable  of  contributing  any  longer  to  their 
own  support,  they  are  removed  to  what  is  called  the  workhouse.  I 
cannot  express  to  you  the  feeling  of  hopelessness  and  dread  with  which 
all  the  decent  poor  look  on  to  this  wretched  termination  of  a  life  of 
labour  To  this  place  all  vagrants  are  sent  for  punishment;  unmarried 
women  with  child  go  hereto  be  delivered;  and  poor  orphans  and  base- 
born  children  are  brought  up  here  till  they  are  of  age  to  be  appren 
ticed  oft';  the  other  inmates  are  those  unhappy  people  who  arc  utterly 
helpless,  parish  idiO'Sand  madmen,  the  blind  and  the  palsied,  and  the 
old  who  are  fair!}-  worn  out.  Jt  is  not  in  the  nature  of  things  that  the 
superintendants  of  such  institutions  as  these  should  be  gentle-ht  ;r'ed, 
when  the  superintendance  is  undertaken  merely  for  the  sake  of  the 
salary." 

"  To  this  society  of  wretchedness  the  labouring  poor  of  England  look 
as  their  last  resting  place  on  this  side  of  the  grave,  and  rather  than  en 
ter  abodes  so  miserable,  the}  endure  the  severest  privations  as  long  as 
it  is  possible  to  exist.  A  feeling  of  honest  pride  makes  them  simi.k 
from  a  place  where  guilt  and  poverty  are  confounded;  and  it  is  he  rt- 
breaking  for  those  who  have  reared  a  family  of  theJr  own  to  be  suigect- 
ed,  in  tluir  old  age,  to  the  harsh  and  unfeeling  authorit)  of  persons 
younger  than  themselves,  neither  better  born  nor  better  bred." 

"Perhaps  the  pain — the  positive  bodily  pain  which  the  poor  of  Bri 
tain  endure/row  co/J,  may  be  esteemed  the  worst  evil  of  their  poverty- 
Coal  is  every  where  clear  except  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  collieries; 
and  especially  so  in  London,  where  the  number  of  the  poor  is  of  couise 
greatest.  You  see  women  raking  the  ashes  in  the  streets,  for  the  sake 
of  the  half  burnt  cinders.  V\  hat  a  picture  does  one  of  their  houses 
present  in  the  depth  of  winter!  the  old  cowering  over  a  few  embers — 
the  children  shivering  in  rags,  pale  and  livid — all  the  activity  and  jo)  ous- 
ness  natural  to  their  time  of  life  chilled  within  them.  Tiie  numbers 
who  perish  from  diseases  produced  by  exposure  to  cold  and  rain,  by 
unwholesome  food,  and  by  the  want  of  enough  even  of  that,  would 
startle  as  well  as  shock  you.  Of  the  children  of  the  poor,  hardly  one 
third  are  reared." 

"To  talk  of  English  happiness  is  like  talking  of  Spartan  freedom  , 
the  helots  are  overlooked.  In  no  country  can  such  riches  be  acquired 
by  commerce,  but  it  is  the  one  who  grows  rich  by  the  labour  of  the 
hundred.  The  hundred  human  beings  like  himself,  as  wonderfull) 
fashioned  by  Nature,  gifted  with  the  like  capacities,  and  equally  nrude 
for  immortality,  are  sacrificed  body  and  soul.  Horrible  as  it  must  needs 
appear,  the  assertion  is  true  to  the  very  letter.  They  are  deprived  in 
childhood  of  all  instruction  and  all  enjoyment;  of  the  sports  in  which 
childhood  instinctively  indulges;  of  fresh  air  by  day  and  of  natural  sleep 
by  night.  Their  health,  physical  and  moral,  is  alike  destroyed;  they 
die  of  diseases  induced  by  unremitting  task-work,  by  confinement  in 
the  impure  atmosphere  of  crowded  rooms,  by  the  particles  of  metallic 


NOTES.  489 

or  vegetable  dust  which  they  are  continually  inhaling ;  or  they  live  to   PART  I. 
grow  up  without  decency,  'without  comfort,  and  without  hope  i  with-  v^^  -^_- 
out  morals,  without  religion,  and  without  shame  ;  and  bring  forth  slaves 
like  themselves  to  tread  in  the  same  path  of  misery." 

"Let  us  leave  to  England  the  boast  of  supplying  all  Europe  with  her 
wares.  The  poor  must  be  kept  miserably  poor,  orsucli  a  state  of  things 
could  not  continue  ;  there  must  be  laws  to  regulate  their  wages,  not  by 
the  value  of  their  work  but  by  the  pleasure  of  their  masters ;  laws  to 
prevent  their  removal  from  one  place  to  another  within  the  kingdom, 
and  to  prohibit  their  emigration  out  of  it. 

"The  gentry  of  the  land  are  better  lodged,  better  accommodated, 
better  educated  than  their  ancestors;  the  poor  man  lives  in  as  poor  a. 
dwelling  as  his  forefathers,  when  they  were  slaves  of  the  soil,  works  as 
hard,  is  worse  fed,  and  not  better  taught.  His  situation,  therefore,  is 
relatively  worse." 

There  is  nothing  in  the  foregoing  statements  which  is  not  fully  con 
firmed  in  the  late  Reports  of  the  select  committee  of  the  House  of  Com 
mons  on  the  Poor  Laws.  The  report  dated  July,  1817,  makes,  with  the 
minutes  of  evidence  taken  before  the  committee,  a  folio  of  168  pages. 
It  unfolds  a  state  of  society  extraordinary  and  deplorable  beyond  the 
utmost  stretch  of  the  imagination,  in  reference  to  a  country,  wearing, 
externally,  an  aspect  of  the  highest  general  vigour  and  prosperity.  The 
passages  "which  I  am  about  to  extract,  can  convey  no  idea  of  the  im 
pression  left  by  the  whole. 

"  Your  committee  cannot  but  fear,  from  a  reference  to  the  increased 
numbers  of  the  poor,  and  increased  and  increasing  amount  of  the  sumS 
raised  for  their  relief,  that  this  system  of  poor  laws  is  perpetually  in 
creasing  the  amount  of  misery  it  was  designed  to  alleviate. 

"  The  result  appears  to  have  been  highly  prejudicial  to  the  moral 
habits,  and  consequent  happiness,  of  a  great  body  of  the  people,  who 
have  been  reduced  to  the  degradation  of  a  dependence  upon  parochial 
support." 

"In  1803,  the  sum  raised,  as  poor  rates,  was  5,848,205/.;  in  1815, 
7,068,999/.  It  is  apparent,  that  both  the  number  of  paupers,  and  the 
amount  of  money  levied  by  assessment,  are  progressively  increasing, 
while  the  situation  of  the  poor  appears  not  to  have  been  improved.  In 
practice,  the  burden  has  been  imposed  almost  exclusively  on  land  and 
houses." 

"  Of  the  cultivator  of  a  small  farm,  it  has  been  said,  forcibly  and  truly, 
that  '  he  rises  early,  and  it  is  late  before  he  can  retire  to  rest ;  he  works 
hard  and  fares  hard ;  yet  with  all  his  labour  and  his  care,  he  can 
scarcely  provide  subsistence  for  his  numerous  family.  He  would  feed 
them  better,  but  the  prodigal  must  Jirst  be  fed ;  he  would  purchase 
warmer  clothing  for  his  children,  but  the  children  of  the  prostitute 
must  Jirst  be  clothed.'  " 

"  The  independent  spirit  of  mind  which  induced  individuals  in  the 
labouring  classes  to  exert  themselves  to  the  utmost,  before  they  sub 
mitted  to  become  paupers,  is  much  impaired  ;  this  order  of  persons  are 
every  day  becoming  less  and  less  unwilling  to  add  themselves  to  the 
list  of  paupers." 

"  In  the  petition  from  the  parish  of  Wombridge,  in  Salop,  the  peti 
tioners  state,  '  that  the  annual  value  of  land,  mines,  and  houses  in  this 
parish  is  not  sufficient  to  maintain  the  numerous  and  increasing  poor, 
even  if  the  same  were  to  be  set  free  of  rent,  and  that  these  circumsr/mces 
will  inevitably  compel  the  occupiers  of  lands  and  mines  to  relinquish 
them,  and  the  poor  will  be  without  relief,  or  any  known  mode  of  ob 
taining  it,  unless  some  assistance  be  speedily  afforded  them.'  And  your 
committee  apprehend,  from  the  petitions  before  them,  that  this  is  one 
only  of  many  parishes  which  are  fast  approaching  to  a  state  of  derefie- 
tion." 

TOE  I.— 3  Q 


490  NOTES. 

PART  I.        "  *"  proportion  to  the  aggregate  number  of  persons  who  are  reduced 
to  this  unfortunate  dependence  on  parish  relief,  must  be  not  only  the 
^^^^^*  increase  of  misery  to  each  individual,  but  also  the  moral  deterioration 
of  the  people." 

"The  casualties  of  sickness  and  old  age  do  not  constitute  the  greater 
proportion  of  the  demands  upon  the  poor's  rate  which  have  raised  it  to 
its  present  high  amount;  a  much  greater  proportion  consists  of  allow 
ances  distributed  in  most  parts  of  England  to  the  labouring  poor,  in 
addition  to  their  wages,  by  reason  of  the  number  of  their  children." 

"  Not  only  the  labourers  who  have  hitherto  maintained  themselves 
are  reduced  to  seek  assistance  from  the  rate,  but  the  smaller  capitalists 
themselves  are  gradually  reduced,  by  the  burden  of  the  assessments,  to 
take  refuge  in  the  same  resource." 

"  A  practice  has  long  prevailed  in  agricultural  parishes,  of  sending 
men,  out  of  work,  to  work  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  parish,  according 
to  their  share  of  the  rate." 

"In  1815,  the  sums  expended  in  litigation  on  account  of  paupers, 
and  in  their  removal,  amounted  to  287,000/.  The  appeals  against  orders 
of  removal,  entered  at  the  four  last  quarter  sessions,  amounted  to  4,700 
Great,  however,  as  the  inconvenience  confessedly  is,  of  this  constant  and 
increasing  litigation,  there  are  still  other  effects  of  the  law  of  settle 
ment,  which  it  is  yet  more  important  to  correct ;  such  are  the  frauds 
so  frequently  committed  by  those  who  are  intrusted  to  prevent  even 
the  probability  of  a  burden  being  brought  on  their  parish  ;  and  such  are 
the  measures,  justifiable  undoubtedly  iii  point  of  law,  which  are  adopted 
very  generally  in  many  parts  of  the  kingdom,  to  defeat  the  obtaining 
a  settlement ;  the  most  common  of  these  latter  practices  is  that  of  hiring 
labourers  for  a  less  period  than  a  year ;  from  whence  it  naturally  and 
necessarily  follows,  that  a  labourer  may  spend  the  season  of  his  health 
and  industry  in  one  parish,  and  be  transferred  in  the  decline  of  his  life 
to  a  distant  part  of  the  kingdom." 

Minutes  of  Evidence — Extracts  from  the  Examinations  of  different 
witnesses,  overseers  of  the  poor,  &c. 

"  What  do  you  consider  the  capacity  for  accommodation  of  the  work 
house  in  your  parish;  what  number  ous^ht  to  be  accommodated?  It 
will  not  accommodate  more  than  400  well ;  there  are  many  of  them  now 
three,  and  four  in  a  bed,  and  1  believe  the  boys  are  six  ,•  the  master  told 
me  so.  If  the  house  was  spacious  enough,  I  think  I  could  write  in  a 
hundred  families  to-morrow." 

"Joseph  Fletcher,  Esq.  The  poor-house,  you  say,  is  overflowing; 
what  is  the  capacity  of  the  accommodation  in  that  poor-house  ? — I  think 
the  poor-house  never  was  intended  to  accommodate  more  than  180,  or 
200  the  outside,  and  we  have  in  it,  I  believe,  260  or  270,  if  not  more. 

"  How  many  sleep  in  a  bed  ? — two  or  three  grown  persons  ;  grown 
persons  two  in  all  beds,  and  some  three,  and  some  four. 

"  Have  you  any  means  of  separating  the  profligate  from  those  well 
ordered  and  well  behaved? — Not  sufficient  means;  it  is  a  difficult  mat 
ter  to  say  which  are  very  bad,  and  which  a  litte  better. 

"  Joseph  Sabine,  Esq. — You  live  in  Hertfordshire  ? — Yes.  At  one 
time  your  poor  were  farmed  ?  Only  those  in  the  workhouse  ;  we  now 
pay  our  workhouse  man  five  shillings  per  head  per  week;  he  maintains 
the  paupers  aiul  has  the  benefit  of  their  labour. 

"  From  your  extensive  knowledge  of  the  labouring  classes,  what  do 
you  suppose  has  been  the  cause  of  the  general  increase  of  poor's  rates, 
and  the  decrease  of  happiness  among  them  ?  Losing  the  reeling  of  in 
dependence  they  had,  and  their  indifference  about  taking  relief." 

"  The  Rev.  Richard  Vernon. — You  are  rector  of  the  parish  of  Bush? 
Yes.  Is  your's  a  purely  agricultural  parish  ?  Yes.  Would  a  man  with 


NOTESo  491 

twelve  shillings  a  week  maintain  four  in  a  family  ?    That  must  be  cal-   PART  I. 
culated  on  the  price  of  bread,  or  potatoes  rather,  for  they  are  cheap..       .  ^_  ^        '. 

"  What  are  the  weekly  earnings  of  your  labourers  in  general  ? 
Twelve  shillings  they  call  it.  We  have  many  families  who  do  not  be 
long  to  us,  and  we  keep  them  in  the  parish  for  fear  of  what  a  pauper 
•will  swear,  for  to  belong  to  a  parish  he  likes,  he  -will  swear  any  thing. 

"  What  is  your  opinion  of  the  workhouses  ?  That  they  act  two  ways, 
one  a  little  good,  and  a  very  great  evil ;  the  little  good  is,  that  they  act 
as  goals  to  terrify  people  from  coming  to  the  parish;  the  evil  is,  that 
when  they  are  in,  however  loath  they  were  to  get  there,  they  soon  be 
come  used  to  it,  and  never  get  out  again. 

"You  conceive  it  corrupts  the  morals  of  the  people  ?  Completely. 
I  believe  it  impossible  to  mix  the  lower  orders  of  mankind  without  do 
ing  mischief. 

"  Should  you  not  think  workhouses,  which  should  be  considered  as 
hospitals  for  the  aged,  and  schools  for  the  young,  as  beneficial  to  the 
individuals,  and  economical  to  the  parish  ?  Certainly  not ;  as  schools  for 
the  young  nothing  can  be  more  shocking,  except  a  gaol ;  and  as  for  the 
old,  they  are  more  comfortable  a  hundred  times  in  private  houses  with 
their  relations  and  friends. 

"  Do  you  see  any  disposition  in  the  young  persons  to  help  their  pa 
rents,  by  giving  them  any  of  their  earnings  ?  No  ;  the  poor  rate  pre 
vents  that ;  they  must  go  to  the  parish." 

"John  Bennet,  Esq. — In  what  parish  da  you  live?  In  Tisbury;  a 
large  parish  about  three  miles  from  Hindon. 

"  Have  you  any  persons  whose  wages  will  not  maintain  them  and 
their  families,  to  whom  you  give  relief  from  the  poor  rates  ?  A  vast 
number,  I  think  three  parts  out  of  four  of  our  labouring  population. 

"Do  you  think  the  morals  of  the  lower  classes  have  been  much  de 
teriorated  of  late  years  ?  Very  much. 

"Is  the  custom  altered  in  your  county  of  hiring  their  labourers  short 
of  the  year  ?  Yes,  we  never'hire  bv  the  year  now  ;  we  hire  to  evade  the 
settlement  of  the  labourer,  for  six,  nine  months,  &c. 

"  I  am  perfectly  convinced  the  price  of  labour  at  present,  and  for  the 
last  three  years  (7s.  per  week)  has  never  been  repaid  to  the  farmer,  in 
cluding  all  other  things  ;  the  farmer  has  never  received  a  remuneration 
for  the  labour,  generally  including  poor  rates,  taxes,  and  alt  other 
things." 

"  Mr.  William  Rankin. — You  reside  at  Bocking  ?  Yes.  You  say  the 
amount  of  the  poor  rates  during  the  last  year,  in  your  parish,  is  about 
5000/.  ?  Yes.-  The  rate  last  year  was  nearly  18s.  in  the  pound  ;  this 
year  it  is  23s." 

*'  Mr.  Thomas  Lacoast,  of  the  parish  of  Chetsey. — Do  you  not  con 
ceive  the  labourers,  if  they  were  provided  for  in  the  house  of  a  farmer, 
and  under  the  superintendance  of  a  master  and  mistress,  would  be 
more  capable  of  doing  work,  and  at  the  same  time  live  cheaper  than  if 
they  provided  for  themselves  ? — I  certainly  think  it  would  be  better  for 
the  labourers;  I  am  sure  that  a  man  who  does  not  live  well  cannot  do 
the  work  so  well  as  a  man  who  does.  I  have  a  man  who  is  very  honest 
and  works  very  hard,  and  I  pay  him  long  wages  for  doing  it,  and  he  has 
been  at  my  house  not  less  than  nineteen  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four; 
and  I  found  he  complained  that  he  was  not  able  to  do  the  work,  and  I 
gave  him  his  dinner  afterwards  every  day,  and  since  that  he  has  been 
able  to  do  the  work." 

"  Rev.  J.  W.  Cunningham. — You  are  vicar  of  Harrow  ?  Yes.  Have 
you  any  communication  to  make  respecting  'Friendly  Benefit  Societies 
for  the  Poor.'  I  have'  had  an  opportunity  of  knowing  perhaps  sixry  or 
seventy  Friendly  Societies,  pretty  accurately,  and  the  general  staie  of 
those  I  have  observed  is  of  this  kind :  They  are  all  held  at  public  houses; 


492  NOTES. 

PART  I.  their  principle  universally  is,  either  to  forfeit  one-eighth  of  the  who!'* 
•^^~  -~^,  savings  for  the  benefit  of  the  public  house,  to  spend  in  beer,  or  else 
one-fourth.  Among  these  sixty  or  seventy,  1  do  not  know  a  single  ex 
ception  to  that  case  ;  they  drink  for  the  benefit  of  the  house,  a  pot  or  a 
pint  of  beer  each  person.  This  morning  I  was  examining  into  the  case 
of  two  in  which  there  were  sixty  members;  a  member  told  me  there 
were  very  rarely  twenty  who  attended ;  therefore,  in  each  of  those 
cases  they  drank  sixty  pots  of  beer,  and  of  course  got  to  a  state  in 
which,  if  they  could,  they  would  drink  sixty  more  ;  and  that  principle 
I  believe  to  be  almost  universal;  it  certainly  is  in  my  own  neighbour 
hood  ;  in  a  large  number  of  those  societies  now,  I  need  hardly  say,  that 
the  demoralizing  effects  of  Beneficial  Societies,  under  their  present  consti 
tution,  is  perfectly  enormous." 


(NOTE  Y.   p.  413.) 

The  state  of  religion  in  America  has  been  at  all  times  a  theme  oi? 
invective  and  affected  lamentation,  in  England.  As  the  majority  of  the 
American  population  was  composed,  from  the  outset,  of  disseiiters,  the 
established  church  naturally  found  them  horribly  delinquent  in  respect 
to  Christianity.  We  have  English  sermons  of  an  early  date,  particu 
larly  one  of  the  celebrated  Archbishop  Seeker,  when  Bishop  of  Ox 
ford,  delivered  in  1740,  before  the  British  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  in  which  New  England  is  represented 
as  being  without  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  about  to  return  to  "en- 
lire  barbarism."  His  lordship  particularly  complained  that  there  were 
several  districts  in  America  of  sixty  or  seventy  miles  long,  having1  but 
one  minister  to  officiate  in  them.  The  case  was  undoubtedly  the  same 
in  some  parts  of  England  and  Scotland,  when  the  reproof  was  uttered, 
and  it  is  so  still  in  the  latter  country.  We  read  in  the  history  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  House  of  Commons  upon  the  proposition  of  Mr. 
Vansittart,  (May  18,  1818,)  to  appropriate  money  to  the  building  of 
new  churches,  what  follows. 

"  Mr.  C.  Grant  said,  that  he  hoped  the  House  would  see  the  neces 
sity  of  extending  the  benefits  of  the  grant  for  the  erection  of  new 
churches  to  Scotland.  To  his  own  knowledge,  there  were  several  dis 
tricts  in  the  northern  part  of  the  kingdom,  some  of  sixty  miles  in  length, 
and  twenty  in  breadth,  without  a  church  sufficient  to  contain  the  one- 
twentieth  part  of  the  population." 

The  Quarterly  Review  has  acknowledged,  within  the  last  three  years, 
that  the  populace  of  England  are  "  more  ignorant  of  their  religious  du 
ties  than  they  are  in  any  other  Christian  country ;"  and  that  "  two- 
thirds  of  the  lower  order  of  English  are  errant  and  unconverted  Pa 
gans."  Nevertheless,  it  holds  itself  entitled  to  commisserate  our  un 
happy  lot,  in  being  without  an  established  church.  We  may  fairly, 
therefore,  enquire,  by  what  traits  this  institution  is  distinguished  in 
England,  apart  from  the  circumstance  of  its  having  left  so  large  a  por 
tion  of  her  population  in  the  darkness  of  gentilism. 

Before  I  adduce  the  extracts  which  1  propose  to  make  from  British 
statements,  for  the  illustration  of  the  point,  I  ought  to  remind  mv 
reader,  that  the  English  hierarchy  has  an  immense  revenue ;  but  that 
those  who  discharge  the  common  parochial  duties  of  the  church 
are  miserably  provided.  In  the  year  1810,  it  was  proposed  by  the 
British  ministry  to  appropriate  100,000/.  as  a  temporary  relief  for  the 
poorer  clergy.  Some  members  of  the  Opposition  suggested  that  in 
stead  of  laying  an  additional  burden  on  the  people,  the  higher  benefices, 


NOTES. 


493 


and  the  livings  in  the  gift  of  the  Crown,  should  be  taxed  in  favour  of  PART  I. 
those  real  and  almost  starving  labourers  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Gospel,  v^^-v-^* 
This  plan  was  contested  and  rejected.     The  Report  of  the  Debate  in 
Hansard's  volume  (xvii.)  furnishes  the  following  matter,  part  of  the 
.speech  of  the  Earl  of  Harrowby  (the  mover  of  the  grant.) 

"  About  three-lifths  of  the  livings  in  England  are  in  lay-patronage, 
and  the  advowsons  are  a  part  of  the  estates  of  the  proprietors,  bought 
and  sold  like  other  estates,  for  a  valuable  consideration. 

"Livings  in  private  patronage  are  usually  disposed  of  to  the  friends, 
relations,  or  private  connections  of  the  patron. 

"  The  vvjiole  number  of  livings  under  150/.  a  year  did  not  seem  to 
exceed  4000. 

"But  it  had  been  generally  supposed  that  the  poor  livings  were 
chiefly  confined  to  the  parishes  in  which  the  population  was  inconsi 
derable,  and  the  duty  light;  remote  villages,  where  we  wished  cer 
tainly  to  give  the  clergyman  a  better  income,  because  it  was  not  fitting 
that  he  should  receive  less  than  a  day  labourer,  but  where  his  poverty 
was  out  of  sight,  and  did  not  affect  the  interests  of  any  considerable  por 
tion  of  the  community.  If  such  a  supposition  had  been  entertained,  the 
accounts,  now  open  upon  the  table,  would  prove  its  error.  Of  the 
whole  number  of  livings  under  150/.  per  annum,  there  were  above  600 
which  (in  1810)  had  a  population  of  between  500  and  1000  persons, 
and  near  500  livings,  with  a  population  of  above  1000.  Of  these  79 
had  between  2  and  3000 — 35  between  3  and  4000 — 17  between  4  and 
5000 — 10  between  5  and  6009 — and  a  considerable  number  much 
more ;  perhaps  the  strongest  instance  was  in  the  diocese  of  Chester.  In 
15  parishes,  of  which  six  were  in  Liverpool,  four  in  Manchester,  three 
in  Whitehaven,  two  in  Oldham,  one  in  Warrington,  one  in  Blackburn, 
and  one  in  Preston,  there  was  a  population  of  above  208,000  persons. 
The  revenue  of  the  church  in  these  three  parishes,  was  1,315/.  amount 
ing  to  about  l^d.  per  ann.  per  soul.  In  Wolverhampton,  Coventry, 
Sunderland,  and  Newcastle,  there  were  cases  fully  as  strong.  Taking 
492  as  the  number  of  parishes,  of  which  the  population  exceeded  1000, 
and  the  income  did  not  exceed  150/.  per  annum  (exclusive  of  Birming 
ham  and  Halifax,  in  which  the  population  of  the  different  parishes  was 
not  distinguished,)  these  492  livings  comprehended  near  1,200,000  per 
sons,  and  the  aggregate  revenue  of  the  church  was  only  42,046/. 

"In  stating  the  whole  income  of  the  church,  in  these  492  parishes, 
to  amount  to  only  42>OOOZ.  their  lordships  must  be  aware,  that  he  had 
far  overstated  the  actual  incomes  of  those  who  performed  these  labours, 
because  half  at  least  of  these  parishes  might  be  supposed  to  be  held  by 
non-resident  incumbents,  who  would  of  course  leave  to  their  Curates 
only  a  part  of  the  profits  of  their  livings.  The  number  of  livings,  under 
150/.  was  3997,  and  the  resident  incumbents  we're  1494." 

«' Of  incumbents,  legally  resident,  in  11,164  parishes,  there  were,  ac 
cording  to  the  bishop's  returns  in  1807,  only  4412.  If  you  added  to 
these,  152  persons,  who  lived  in  their  own  or  their  relatives  houses, 
within  the  parish,  and  176  who  lived  near,  and  did  duty,  the  number  of 
incumbents  legally  or  virtually  resident  would  amount  to  5040.  There 
were  340  other  persons  returned  as  exempt,  on  account  of  cathedral  or 
college  offices,  many  of  whom  might  probably  be  resident  part  of  the 
year,  although  they  did  not  fulfil  the  conditions  of  legal  residence,  and 
the  same  observation  might  apply  to  many  other  persons  under  differ 
ent  classes  of  non-residents.  The  number  of  5040  was,  however,  all 
that  appeared  upon  the  returns ;  of  these  resident  incumbents,  those 
who  possessed  incomes  under  150/.  per  annum,  were,  1214;  adding 
those  of  this  class  who  might  be  considered  virtually  resident,  the  num 
ber  would  be  1494.  It  was,  however,  too  large  an  allowance  to  include 
as  virtual  residents,  all  those  who  resided  near,  and  did  the  duty,  for 


494  NOTES. 

PART  I.  many  cases  must  occur  in  which  the  parish  saw  nothing  of  its  pastor, 
y^"V^fc  except  when  he  performed  the  service  of  church  once  a  week,  or  ones 
a  month,  in  the  course  of  iiis  morning  or  evening  ride.  Of'lhe  remaii  - 
ing  2503  parishes,  of  which  the  income  wiis  not  150/.  a  year,  and  where 
the  incumbent  neither  actually  nor  virtually  resided,  the  income  of  the 
officiating  clergyman  could  only  be  what  the  incumbent  was  able  to 
spaie  out  of  his  own  pittance,  or  rather,  generally,  it  must  be  the  lov  - 
est  price  at  which  it  was  possible  to  get  the  labour  performed.  The 
power  of  the  bishop  to  raise  the  salaries  of  the  curates  was  rarely  e:  - 
erted,  and  its  effect  might  be  defeated  by  private  agreement  between 
the  parties. 

"This  was  therefore  the  state  of  the  church,  as  it  appeared  upon  the 
returns  ;  on  11,164  parishes  there  were  3556  legally,  or  actually  resi 
dent  incumbents,  with  incomes  of  150/.  per  annum,  and  1494  with  h  - 
conu-s  below  that  sum.  The  remaining  6124  parishes  were  left  (sub 
ject  to  the  preceding  observations)  chiefly  to  the  charge  of  curate  4. 
That  the  non-residence  of  incumbents  existing  to  so  enormous  an  ex 
tent,  was  a  serious  evil,  he  would  not  stop  to  argue;  the  main  question 
was,  whether  it  was  an  evil  which  the  liberality  of  parliament,  withoi.t 
a  revision  of  the  existing  laws,  repecting  non-residence,  and  plurali 
ties,  could  alone  remedy. 

"  The  present  practice,  according  to  which,  the  non-resident  incum 
bents  of  livings  of  50/,  60/.,  or  70/.  a  year,  put  into  their  own  pockets  a 
portion  of  this  wretched  pittance,  and  left  much  less  than  the  -wages  of  a 
day  labourer  for  the  subsistence  of  their  curates,  appeared  to  him  far  from 
creditable  to  the  parties  concerned,  and  calculated  to  degrade  the  cha 
racter  of  the  church.  Many  instances  came  within  his  own  knowledge, 
in  which  parishes  were  served  for  20/.,  or  even  for  101.  per  annum,  and 
in  which,  of  course,  all  they  knew  of  their  clergyman  was  the  sound  of 
his  voice,  in  the  reading  desk  or  pulpit,  once  a  week,  or  a  fortnight,  or 
a  month.  This  must  also  be  the  case  where  curates  are  permitted  to 
serve  more  than  two  churches. 

"  In  the  present  state  of  the  law,  or  at  least,  according  to  the  present 
mode  of  executing  it,  there  was  a  great  difficulty  in  obtaining  permis 
sion  to  erect  an  additional  place  of  worship,  according  to  the  church  of 
England,  within  the  limits  of  an  existing  parish.  The  inhabitants, 
therefore,  had  no  choice.  They  might  prefer  the  church  of  England, 
but  that  church  shut  her  doors  against  them;  they  had,  therefore,  no 
option,  but  either  to  neglect  divine  worship  entirely,  or  to  attend  it  i:i 
a  form  which  they  did  not  so  well  approve." 

After  Lord  Harrowby  had  finished  his  statements, — of  which  that 
part  relating  to  the  non-residence  of  the  reverend  usufructuaries  of  no 
less  than  six  thousand  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  livings  out  of 
eleven  thousand  one  hnndred  and  sixty-four,  is  so  instructive  and  ex 
traordinary — the  Earl  of  Stanhope  proceeded  in  this  strain  : 

"  However  he  might  in  general  difi'er  from  the  noble  earl,  he  had 
always  listened  to  him  with  a  certain  degree  of  satisfaction,  because 
that  noble  earl  always  appeared  as  contradistinguished  to  many  of  his 
colleagues,  to  speak  'n  ally  what  he  meant. 

"  In  his  present  speech  there  was  much  to  approve,  and  he  had  only 
to  observe,  that  if  from  his  lips  similar  observations  had  fallen,  he  would 
be  charged  as  the  libeller  of  the  church,  as  the  enemy  of  our  religious 
interests,  and  the  plague  knew  what. 

"  He  would  venture  to  predict,  that,  whether  you  voted  six  millions, 
or  sixty  millions,  whether  you  built  churches  or  no  churches,  whether 
you  calumniated  Dissenters  or  otherwise,  the  number  of  communicants 
of  the  establishment  would  decrease,  and  that  of  Dissenters  increase,  as 
long  as  they  saw  the  church  of  England  made  the  engine  of  state  policy  ; 
as  long  as  "they  saw  its  prelates  translated  and  preferred,  not  for  their 


NOTES.  495 

religious  merits,  but  their  slavish  support  to  the  ministers  of  the  day.   PART  I. 
For  he  would  :isk  the  noble  earl  fairly  to  answer,  if  he  knew  of  no  pre-  y^-v^^^ 
ferments  in  the  higher  ranks  of  the  clergy  conferred  upon  such  pre 
tensions  ?     When  he  saw  the  bishops,  according  to  the  injunctions  of 
their  religion,  voting  against  wars,  when  he  saw  them  voting  for  the 
liberties  of  the  people,  then  he  would  pronounce  that  the  church  of 
England  had  no  reason  to  feur." 

With  the  established  religion,  there  exists,  strange  as  it  may  appear, 
a  vast  deficiency  of  places  of  worship,  so  that  a  great  proportion  of  the 
British  population,  greater,  I  will  venture  to  assert,  than  the  proportion 
of  our  own  so  situated,  has  no  access  to  public  worship.  I  will  offer  in 
proof,  the  statements  made  the  last  year  in  the  House  of  Commons,  on 
the  occasion  already  mentioned,  of  a  grant  for  the  erection  of  new 
churches. 

"The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  observed,  (March  16,  18181  that 
for  more  than  a  century,  the  want  of  accommodation  for  public  worship 
had  been  fell  by  the  members  of  the  established  church  as  a  most  se 
rious  evil;  and  an  attempt  had  been  made  so  long  ago  by  parliament  to 
remedy  it,  so  far  as  respected  the  metropolis  and  its  immediate  vicinity. 
This  attempt,  however,  though  attended  with  considerable  expense, 
had  been  very  imperfect  in  its  execution,  only  eleven  churches  having 
been  built  out  ofjlfty,  which  it  was  proposed  to  erect.  Since  that  lime 
no  farther  steps  liad  been  taken  by  public  authority,  though  the  evil 
had  been  perpetually  increasing  with  the  'growing1  population  of  the 
country.  He  had  extracted  from  parliamentary  accounts  a  list  of  twenty- 
seven  parishes,  in  which  the  deficiency  of  churches  was  most  enormous. 
The  excess  of  the  inhabitants  beyond  the  means  of  accommodation  in 
the  churches  exceeds  20,000  in  each.  Of  these,  sixteen  were  in  or  about 
Londcm,  and  eleven  in  great  provincial  towns  In  three  of  them  the  ex 
cess  in  each  was  above  50,000  souls  : — in  four  mort  from  40  to  50,000; 
— in  eight  from  30  to  40,000: — and  in  the  remaining  twelve,  from  20 
to  30,000.  In  Liverpool,  out  of  94,376  inhabitants,  21,000  only  could  be 
accommodated  in  the  churches,  leaving  a  deficiency  of  73,376 ; — in 
Manchester,  of  79,459,  only  10,950,  Ieaving68, 509;  and  in  Mary-ir-r>one, 
of  75,624,  no  more  than  8700,  leaving  66,924  without  the  means  of  ac 
commodation.  It  thus  appeared,  that  in  three  parishes  only,  there,  were 
near  210,000  inhabitants  who  could  not  obtain  access  to  their  churches. 

"The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  stated,  (March  18,  18lo.)  that 
the  population  of  London  and  its  vicinity,  was  1,129,551 ;  of  whom  the 
churches  and  episcopal  chapels  can  only  contain  151,536,  leaving  an  ex 
cess  of  977,915. 

"  In  the  dioceses  of  York  and  Chester,  the  disproportion  of  popula 
tion  to  the  capacity  of  churches,  was  little  less  than  in  the  district  of  the 
metropolis.  In  the  diocese  of  York  there  were  ninety-six  churches, 
which  afford  room  for  139,163  inhabitants — the  whole  population 
amounted  to  720,091,  so  that  there  was  a  deficiency  of  accommodation 
for  580,928.  In  that  of  Chester,  there  were  one  hund'red  and  sixty-seven 
parishes,  the  churches  in  which  would  contain  228,696;  but  the  actual 

of  1,040,006. 
ir  greater  part 
service  even  once 
a  day,  was,  however,  by  no  means  the  only  evil.  There  were  many 
other  most  important  functions  of  his  sacred  office,  which  it  was  impos 
sible  for  any  clergyman,  however  zealous  and  laborious,  adequately  to 
discharge  towards  a  population  of  40  or  50,000  souls,  or  even  a  much 
smaller  number. 

With  respect  to  the  deficiency  in  the  number  of  places  for  public 
worship,  Lord  Selsey  remarked,  "the  fact  was  too  notorious  to  require 


496  NOTES. 

PART  I.  explanation.     Many  parts  of  the  kingdom,  he  lamented  to  say,  were  ul- 
v.^-v^^,  terly  destitute  of  any  means  of  acquiring  moral  instruction." 

The  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  observed,  on  the  same  occasion  on 
which  we  made  the  statements  quoted  from  him  above,  that  the  church 
of  Scotland  stood  equally  in  need  of  assistance.  The  committee  of  the 
church  of  Scotland  has,  in  fact,  lately  represented,  that,  in  that  country, 
there  are  forty-seven  parishes  in  need  of  churches  or  chapels,  and  eighty- 
eight  other  parishes  but  ill  supplied  with  religious  instruction. 

During  the  discussion,  in  the  House,  of  Commons,  of  the  question  of 
erecting  new  places  of  worship,  the  following,  among  many  representa 
tions  of  like  import,  were  made  by  members  of  the  highest  distinction. 

Lord  Milton  said,  that  "  there  was  hardly  a  parish  church  in  the  king-^ 
dom,  in  which  great  encroachments  had  not  been  made,  by  persons  of 
wealth,  on  that  part  of  the  church  which  was  the  property  of  the  popu 
lation  of  the  parish." 

"  Where  tithes  exist,"  said  Mr.  Brougham,  "  the  pastor  is  seen  in  the 
light  of  a  tax-gatherer.  Among  the  causes  of  irreligion  or  lukewarm 
ness,  and  ecclesiastical  feuds  and  schisms,  he  believed  none  to  be  so 
prominent  as  the  disputes  which  arose  out  of  tithes." 

"  Jl  large  proportion"  said  Sir  Charles  Monck,  "  of  the  present  endow 
ments  of  the  church  are  employed  in  a  manner  not  at  all  calculated 
to  promote  the  interests  of  religion." 

The  mere  fact  of  non-res'idence,  that  is  to  say,  the  total  personal  de 
reliction  of  their  parishes,  by  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  holders  of 
benefices,  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  who  had  solemnly  declared,  on  enter 
ing  into  holy  orders,  that  they  verily  believed  themselves  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost, — the  mere  fact  bespeaks  a  great  perversion  of  character 
and  functions  among  the  clergy  of  the  established  church.  It^isinu 
Uritish  publication  of  no  inconsiderable  note  and  authority,  the  Christian 
Observer,  for  Nov.  1811,  that  I  find  the  following  details,  which  could 
not  have  been  hazarded,  if  not  in  great  part  indisputably  true. 

"  Christianity  forms  little  or  no  part  in  the  regular  plan  of  instruction 
at  our  universities.  Contrary  to  our  experience  in  every  other  profes 
sion,  candidates  for  our  ministry  are  taught  every  branch  of  science  but 
that  in  which  they  are  to  practise.  Chapel  is  not  attended  till  it  is  half 
over.  Many  go  there  intoxicated,  as  to  a  kind  of  roll  call :  and  though 
the  assumption  of  the  Lord's  supper  is  peremptory  upon  the  students, 
no  care  is  taken  to  teach  them  its  importance." 

"  So  very  lax  has  become  the  examination  for  orders,  that  there  is 
no  man,  who  has  taken  a  degree  at  the  university,  who  cannot  reckon 
on  ordination  as  a  certainty,  whatever  his  attainments  in  learning,  mo 
rals,  or  religion." 

"  A  great  proportion  of  our  clergy  are  a  set  of  men,  wrapt  up  in  secu 
lar  pursuits,  with  a  total  indifference  to  the  spiritual  duties  of  their  call 
ing.  Many  of  them  seem  to  consider,  that  they  are  appointed  to  a  life 
of  sloth  and  inactivity,  or  merely  to  feed  upon  the  fat  of  the  land  ;  and 
that,  in  return  for  immense  and  growing  revenues,  they  have  only  to 
gabble  through  a  few  formal  offices." 

"  Many  in  the  higher  offices  of  the  church  are  distinguished  for  learn 
ing  and  piety,  but,  for  all  this,  we  may  fear  that  a  great  proportion  of  the 
clergy  are  the  very  reverse  of  these  high  examples — and  betray  an  indif 
ference  of  conduct,  and  dissoluteness  of  manners,  which,  whilst  it  is  most 
shameful  to  them,  would  not  be  borne  with  in  any  other  state  of  life." 

"  A  horse  race,  a  fox  chase,  or  a  boxing  match,  is  never  without  its 
reverend  attendants;  and  the  man,  who,  in  the  house  of  God,  hurries 
over  the  offices  of  devotion,  as  beneath  his  attention,  will  be  seen,  the 
next  day,  the  noisy  toast-master,  or  songster,  of  a  club.  Their  profes 
sional  indolence,  but  one  degree  removed  from  positive  misconduct 


NOTES.  497 

their  occasional  activity,  at  a  county  election,  in  a  cathedral  county  •  PART  I. 
town.    You  have  the  honour  of  finding  yourself,  in  such  contests,  act-  v^-v-v^ 
ing  in  concert  with  deans,  chancellors,  archdeacons,  prebendaries,  and 
minor  canons,  without  number.     On  such  occasions  grave,  very  grave 
persons  are  to  be  seen,  shouting  the  chorus  of  some  election  ribaldry, 
whose  zeal,  or  even  common  industry,  upon  important  topics,  had  never 
been  witnessed." 

We  are  not  at  a  loss  for  still  higher  authority  on  this  subject.  The 
late  Bishop  Watson,  of  Llandaff,  wrote  thus  in  his  "  Memoirs"  recently 
given  to  the  world. 

"  It  has  been  said  (I  believe  by  D'Alembert,)  that  the  highest  offices 
in  church  and  state  resemble  a  pyramid  whose  top  is  accessible  to  only 
two  sorts  of  animals,  eagles  and  reptiles.  My  pinions  were  not  strong 
enough  to  pounce  upon  its  top,  and  I  scorned  by  creeping  to  ascend  its 
summit.  Not  that  abishoprick  was  then,  or  ever,  an  object  of  my  am 
bition  ;  for  I  considered  the  acquisition  of  it  as  no  proof  of  personal 
merit,  inasmuch  as  bishopricks  are  as  often  given  to  the  faltering  depend* 
ants,  or  to  the  unlearned  younger  branches  of  noble  families,  as  to  men 
of  the  greatest  erudition ;  and  I  considered  the  possession  of  it  as  a 
frequent  occasion  of  personal  demerit ;  for  I  saw  the  generality  of  tlie 
bishops  bartering  their  independence  and  the  dignity  of  their  order  for  the 
chance  of  a  translation;  and  polluting  gospel-humility  by  the  pride  of 
prelacy.  I  used  then  to  say,  and  I  say  so  still,  render  the  office  of 
a  bishop  respectable,  by  giving  some  civil  distinction  to  its  possessor,  in 
order  that  his  example  may  have  more  weight  with  both  the  laity  and 
clergy.  Annex  to  each  bishoprick  some  portion  of  the  royal  eccle'siasti- 
cal  patronage  -which  is  noiv  prostituted  by  the  chancellor  and  the  minister  of 
the  day  to  the  purpose  of  parliamentary  corruption" 

In  a  remarkable  work,  entitled,  •«  The  State  of  the  Established  Church, 
in  a  series  of  Letters  to  the  Right  Honourable  Spencer  Percival,"  it  is 
said,  that  the  London  clergy  afford  a  faint,  though  laudable  exception 
tp  the  above  general  description.  I  am  not  disposed  to  question  the 
fact,  but  I  lay  before  the  American  reader,  that  he  may  judge  for  him 
self,  the  following  extract  from  the  proceedings  of  the  British  House  of 
Commons,  on  the  24th  March,  1819. 

"  Sir  James  Graham  called  the  attention  of  the  house  to  the  situation 
of  the  clergy  of  fifty  of  the  parishes  in  the  city  of  London.  In  thirty 
out  of  thejifty  parishes,  the  petitioners  performed  the  duty  in  person." 

"  Mr.  Harvey  said,  he  was  of  opinion  that  the  petitioners  were  endea 
vouring,  by  slow,  but  sure  degrees,  to  accomplish  designs  which  they 
dared  not  unfold  at  once,  as  they  knew  the  rapacity  -which  ivas  their  cha 
racteristic,  would  not  fail  to  cause  the  house  to  repel  them  with  indigna 
tion  if  those  designs  were  fully  known.  The  Hon.  Baronet  had  en 
deavoured  to  awaken  the  sympathy  of  the  house  for  these  gentlemen, 
but  he  (Mr.  Harvey)  stated  almost  all  of  them  to  have  4UO/.  per  an 
num,  and  some  had  600/.  or  more.  Above  twenty  were  pluralists,  and 
if  they  had  no  residences  in  the  city,  it  was  because  they  were  the  best 
calculators  in  it,  and  preferred  letting  their  houses  for  the  sake  of 
the  profit  that  might  be  thus  obtained.  Not  one  of  them  dared  to  call 
on  the  house  to  take  his  individual  case  into  consideration.  The  value 
they  themselves  attached  to  their  own  labours,  might  be  collected 
from  the  sums  they  paid  to  the  curates  who  officiated  for  them,  and  who 
received  50/,  60/,  or  701.  per  annum  from  those  who  were  in  the  yearly 
receipt  of  WOOL,  15001.,  or  2000/." 

Now  what  are  the  character  and  situation  of  the  episcopal  clergy 
throughout  this  country,  where  the  church  is  divorced  from  the  state  r 
Asa  body  they  are  unimpeachable  in  all  respects  ;  of  the  best  morals 
and  most  regular  habits;  indefatigable  in  discharging  the  most  solemn 
of  trusts;  ever  at  the  post  of  duty.  On2  small  part  of  them  is  not 

VOL.  I.— 3  R 


498 


NOTES, 


PART  I.  endowed  with  princely  revenues,  while  the  majority  drag  on  a  life  of 
V^-v*^/  indigence  and  abjection.  The  provision  for  each  member  is  not  ample, 
but  for  the  most  part  enough  to  assure  a  decent,  comfortable,  and  inde- 
pendent  existence.  The  same  remarks  may  be  extended  to  our  regular 
clergy  of  every  description,  among  whom  non-residence  and  pluralities 
are  unknown,  and  whose  stipend  arises  directly  as  it  were,  from  the 
esteem  and  confidence  of  their  parishioners. 

The  detections  lately  made  in  England,  respecting  tl\e  abuse  of  the 
public  charities,  with  which  the  established  clergy  are  so  largely  con 
nected,  furnish  additional  proof  of  the  state  of  things  implied  by  the 
circumstance  of  "  three  -fifths  of  the  livings  being  in  lay  patronage, 
and  being  .usually  disposed  of  to  the  private  connexions  of  the  patron." 
The  Bill  for  enquiring  into  the  malversation  of  the  charities,  which 
Mr.  Brougham,  as  the  chairman  of  the  education  committee,  introduced 
into  the  House  of  Commons,  was  vehemently  opposed  in  the  upper 
house  by  the  prelates,  and  destroyed  through  their  influence.  There 
are,  it  would  seem,  five  hundred  free  schools  in  England  and  Wales,  all 
of  which  are  grossly  perverted  from  their  purpose.  "  It  is  absolutely 
necessary,"  said  Lord  Eldon,  speaking  as  chancellor,  (C.  13.  V.  580,) 
"  that  it  should  be  perfectly  known  that  charity  estates  all  over  the  king 
dom  are  dealt  with  in  a  manner  most  grossly  improvident,  amounting 
to  the  most  direct  breach  of  trust."  The  Report  of  the  committee  of 
Parliament  on  the  education  of  the  lower  orders,  (May  1818,)  is  still 
stronger  on  this  head.  "  It  appears  clearly  from  the  returns,"  says  the 
committee,  "  as  well  as  from  other  sources,  that  a  very  great  deficiency 
exists  in  the  means  of  educating  the  poor,  wherever  the  population  is 
thin  and  scattered  over  the  county  districts.  The  efforts  of  individuals 
combined  in  societies  are  almost  wholly  confined  to  populous  places." 

"In  the  course  of  their  enquiries  your  committee  have  incidentaiiv 
observed  that  charitable  funds,  connected  with  education,  are  not  alone 
liable  to  great  abuses.  Equal  negligence  and  malversation  appear  to  Jiave, 
prevailed  in  all  other  charities" 

Mr.  Brougham,  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  said  (June  3d,  1818,') 
"  that  it  had  been  generally  granted,  indeed  nothing  was  more  manifest 
to  the  committee  of  that  house,  that  abuses  prevailed,  not  alone  in  the 
charities  connected  with  education,  but  in  all  other  public  charities,  of 
what  description  soever.  lie  would  pledge  himself  to  prove  that  of  alt 
the  charities  in  which  abuses  exist,  none  were  greater  or  grosser  than 
in  those  where  special  visitors  (to  charitable  institutions)  were  appoint 
ed.  A  variety  of  causes  concurred  to  produce  this  evil.  In  some  in 
stances  these  visitors  resided  at  a  distance,  and  never  exercised  their 
powers  ;  in  others  the  visitor  was  the  patron  of  the  school,  and  did  not 
correct  abuses  to  which  his  system  led  ;  in  others  the  visitor  was  the 
heir  at  law  of  the  endower,  and  had  rather  pocket  the  funds  than  ap 
ply  them  to  the  proper  purposes  ;  and  of  course  he  did  not  visit  his  own 
sins  very  heavily  on  his  own  head.  Indeed  he  could  say  positively  that 
the  grossest  case  of  abuse  that  came  before  the  committee,  was  of  a 
charity  where  special  visitors  have  been  appointed,  but  who  had  neve:- 
attended  to  their  duties  for  twenty  years." 

As  a  specimen  of  these  abuses,  I  take  the  following  instance  related 
in  Mr.  Brougham's  admirable  pamphlet — The  "Letter  to  Sir  Samuel 
Romilly,  respecting  the  Charities." 

"  The  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Lincoln  have  the  patronage  as  well  as  the 
superintendence  of  Spital  charity  ;  yet  they  allow  the  warden,  son  of 
their  Diocesan,  to  enjoy  the  produce  of  large  estates,  devised  to  him  //; 
trust  for  the  poor  of  two  parishes,  as  well  as  of  the  hospital,  while  he  only 
pays  a  few  pounds  to  four  or  five  of  the  latter.  The  Bishop  himself  is 
patron  and  visitor  of  Mere,  and  permits  the  warden,  his  nephew  (for 
whom  he  made  the  vacancy  by  promoting  his  predecessor,)  to  enjoy  am7 


NOTES, 


499 


underlet  a  considerable  trust  estate,  paying  only  24/.  a  year  to  the'  PART  I. 
poor."  (P.  25.)  WN^W' 

"  The  statutes  of  Winchester  College  require,  in  the  most  express 
terms,  that  only  "  the  poor  and  indigent"  shall  be  admitted  upon  the  foun 
dation.  They  are,  in  fact,  all  children  of  persons  in  easy  circumstances ; 
many  of  opulent  parents.  Boys,  when  they  attain  the  age  of  fifteen, 
solemnly  swear  that  they  have  not  3/.  6s.  a  year  to  spend;  yet  as  a 
practical  commentary  on  this  oath,  they  pay  ten  guineas  a  year  to  the 
masters,  and  the  average  of  their  expenses  exceed  50/.  It  is  ordered 
that  if  any  boy  comes  into  the  possession  of  property  to  the  amount  of 
51.  a  year,  he  shall  be  expelled ;  and  this  is  construed  66/.  13s.  4cf.  re 
gard  being  had  to  the  diminished  value  of  money,  although  the  war 
dens,  fellows  and  scholars  all  swear  to  observe  the  statutes  "  according 
to  their  plain,  literal,  and  grammatical  sense  and  understanding.  The 
infractions  of  the  original  statutes  are  sought  to  be  justified  by  the  con 
nivance  of  successive  visitors,  and  it  is  alledged  that  they  have  even 
authorized  them  by  positive  orders  (injunctions).  But  the  statutes  ap 
pointing  the  visitor,  expressly  prohibit  him  from  altering  them  in  any 
manner  or  way  directly  or  indirectly,  and  declare  all  acts  in  contraven 
tion  of  them  absolutely  null.  1  must  add,  that  notwithstanding  the  dis 
regard  shown  to  some  statutes  and  some  oaths,  there  was  a  strong  dis 
position  manifested  in  the  members  of  the  college  to  'respect  those 
which  they  imagined  bound  them  to  keep  their  foundation  and  their 
concerns  secret."* 

In  his  speech  of  May  1818,  on  this  subject,  Mr.  Brougham  stated, 
"  that  the  whole  income  actually  received  by  charities  of  all  descriptions, 
might  be  between  7  or  800,000/. ;  but  the  sum  which  ought  to  be  re 
ceived  by  charities  was  nearer  two  millions  sterling  than  fifteen  hun 
dred  thousand  ;"  and  his  account  of  the  formation  of  this  immense  fund, 
so  infamously  plundered  and  dilapidated,  is  not  a  little  remarkable. 

"  It  is  impossible,"  said  the  orator,  "  for  me  to  close  these  remarks 
without  expressing  the  extraordinary  gratification  which  I  feel,  in  ob 
serving  how  amply  the  poor  of  this  country  have  in  all  ages  been  en 
dowed  by  the  pious  munificence  of  individuals.  It  is  with  unspeakable 
delight  that  I  contemplate  the  rich  gifts  that  have  been  bestowed — the 
honest  zeal  displayed  by  private  persons  for  the  benefit  of  their  fellow 
creatures.  When  we  inquire  from  whence  proceeded  those  magnifi 
cent  endowments,  we  generally  find  that  it  is  not  from  the  public  po 
licy,  nor  the  bounty  of  those  who  in  their  day  possessing  princely  re 
venues,  were  anxious  to  devote  a  portion  of  them  for  the  benefit  of 
mankind — not  from  those,  who  having  amassed  vast  fortunes  by  public 
employment,  were  desirous  to  repay  in  charity  a  little  of  what  they 
had  thus  levied  upon  the  state.  It  is  far  more  frequently  some  obscure 
personage — some  tradesman  of  humble  birth,  who,  grateful  for  the  edu 
cation^  which  had  enabled  him  to  acquire  his  wealth  through  honest  in 
dustry,  turned  a  portion  of  it  from  the  claims  of  nearer  connexions  to 
enable  other  helpless  creatures  in  circumstances  like  his  own,  to  meet 
the  struggles  he  himself  had  undergone." 

The  guardianship  of  what  the  honest  tradesman  had  thus  nobly  ap 
propriated,  fell  in  a  great  measure  to  the  established  church  as  such,  and 
the  consequence  is  the  waste  of  nearly  two-thirds  by  embezzlement 
and  neglect !  It  is  incredible  what  opposition  was  made  both  in  and  out 
of  parliament  to  the  idea  of  a  parliamentary  commission  for  enquiring 
into  charities  having  special  "  visitors,  governors  and  overseers !" 
"  Almost  every  considerable  charity,"  says  Mr.  Brougham,  "  is  subject 
to  special  visitation.  We  (the  education  committee)  were  severely  re 
proved  for  pushing  our  inquiries  into  establishments  destined  it  was 
said  for  the  education  of  the  upper  classes,  while  our  instructions 


P.  51,  2.- 


#00  NOTES. 

PART  I.  confined  us  to  schools  for  the  lower  orders.  Unfortunately,  we  no 
v.,-  -»  -  sooner  looked  into  any  of  these  institutions,  than  we  found  that  this  ob 
jection  lo  our  jurisdiction  rested  upon  the  very  abuses,  which  we  were 
investigating,  and  not  upon  the'  real  nature  of  the  foundation.  For  as 
often  as  we  examined  any  establishment,  the  production  of  the  charter 
or  statutes  proved  that  it  was  originally  destined  for  the  education  of 
the  poor.*  The  alarms  conceived  by  the  members  and  friends  of  the 
church  at  the  prospect  of  a  thorough  investigation,  and  their  strenuous, 
and  in  part  successful,  efforts  to  avert  that  calamity,  are  strikingly 
contrasted,  as  they  are  related  by  Mr.  Brougham  in  his  pamphlet,  with 
the  fact  announced  in  the  following  statement. 

"The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  said  (House  of  Commons,  June 
3d,  1818,)  that  the  bill  (on  the  subject  of  the  charitable  institution  en 
quiry)  exempted  the  schools  of  Quakers,  and  yet  he  was  authorized  to 
say  from  that  respectable  body  of  men,  that  they  had  not  only  no  objec 
tion  to  the  examination  of  their  few  charitable  schools,  but  that  they 
should  rejoice  at  finding  them  made  the  subject  of  Parliamentary  in 
quiry." 

The  advantage  of  an  established  church,  as  regards  the  cause  of  Chris 
tians,  if  not  imaginary,  would  be  shewn,  at  least  in  the  greater  morality 
and  decorum  of  the  lives  of  its  professors  and  constitutional  supporters. 
If  it  failed  to  .make  real  Christians  and  exemplary  citizens  of  its  imme 
diate  allies,  its  superior  influence  in  this  respect  with  the  mass  of  a  na 
tion  might  well  be  questioned.  We  have  seen  how  the  case  stands  as 
to  the  Episcopal  clergy,  in  England.  Now  what  is  it  as  to  the  royal 
family,  the  peers,  and  gentry  ?  Have  the  princes  set  a  Christian  ex 
ample  ?  In  the  scandalous  debate  of  the  House  of  Commons  (April 
13th,  1818,)  respecting  the  marriage  of  the  royal  family,  lord  Castle- 
reagh  remarked  that  "  of  the  seven  sons  of  his  Majesty,  not  one,  al 
though  the  youngest  was  forty -five  years  of  age,  had  any  lawful  issue. 
To  excite  some  of  the  members  of  the  royal  family  to  marriage  was 
now  an  object  of  consequence.  The  Prince  Regent,  sensible  of  this, 
had  made  offers  to  such  of  his  royal  brothers  as  could  reconcile  mar 
riage  to  their  feelings." 

The  open  concubinage  in  which  they  have  lived,  without  being  pro 
scribed  by  the  established  church,  is  sufficiently  notorious.  On  the 
subject  of  these  misogamists,  I  need  only  repeat  the  phrase  of  Mr.  Wil- 
berforce,  uttered  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  day  after  the  debate 
just  mentioned. 

"  As  to  the  allusion  made  to  the  character  of  the  princes,  he  agreed 
that  we  had  no  right  to  enter  into  the  discussion  of  any  man's  private 
character.  But  yet  it  was  impossible  to  suppress  what  we  saw,  and 
felt,  and  thought." 

To  what  class<of  persons  belong  those  flagrant  cases  of  adultery  with 
which  the  English  newspapers  are  filled  ?  To  the  nobility  and  gentry, 
the  hereditary  pillars  of  the  establishment.  Who  give  the  grand  dinner 
parties  and  concerts,  which  distinguish  the  Sabbath  in  London  ?  Who 
make  a  gala-day  of  it  in  the  Park,  and  in  fact  take  the  lead  in  its  dese 
cration  ?  How  is  it  spent  by  the  high  officers  of  state,  the  cabinet-minis- 
sters,  &c.  ? 

The  spirit  of  toleration  is  not,  indeed,  the  distinguishing  trait  in  the 
history  of  the  Christian  world,  but  this  spirit  is,  doubtless,  one  of  the 
ends  of  Christianity.  How  far  it  has  been  displayed  and  cultivated  by 
the  established  church  of  England,  is  seen  from  the  contents  of  a  preJ 
ceding  note  (V).  I  will  make  the  case  somewhat  more  plain  by  a  few  * 
additional  facts  stated  upon  Parliamentary  authority.  There  are  very 
near  one  hundred  and  fifty  acts  on  the  British  statute-book,  relative  to 

*  Letter  to  sir  Samuel  Romilly,  p.  481. 


NOTES.  501 

test  oaths,  of  supremacy,  allegiance,  abjuration,  &c.  (Mr.  Croker,  May  PART  I. 
3d,  1819.  House  of  Commons.)  Catholic  emancipation  has  been  now'  v^^  ^^ 
agitated  in  Parliament  since  forty  years.  (Mr.  Grattun,  May  3d,  1819,) 
The  principal  tenets  of  the  Catholic  religion — transubstantiation,  the  sa 
crifice  of  the  mass,  the  invocation  of  saints,  are  still  declared  idolatrous 
on  the  British  statute-book.  Thus,  near  five  millions  of  the  inhabi 
tants  of  the  British  Isles,  are  held  and  stigmatized  by  law  as  idolaters, 
Earl  Grey,  in  the  House  of  Lords  (May  17th,  1819,)  and  general  Thorn 
ton,  in  the  House  of  Commons  (May  7th,  1818,)  moved  to  expunge  from 
the  British  code,  this  insult  and  injustice  to  so  large  a  portion  of  his  ma 
jesty's  subjects;  but  they  could  make  no  impression  upon  the  majority 
of  Parliament.  The  Earl  of  Uonoughmore,  in  supporting  the  Catholic 
petition,  in  the  House  of  Peers,  in  1818,  related  the  following  anec 
dote  : 

The  Earl  of  Donoughmore  said  "  a  circumstance  had  happened  in  the 
metropolis  itself,  which  he  would  state.  It  was  a  toast  given  in  a  large 
society  of  gentlemen,  and  which  is  resorted  to  by  none  but  persons  who, 
in  point  of  situation  and  prosperity,  are  entitled  to  that  denomination. 
But  what  was  this  toast  ?  it  was  so  nauseous  and  disgusting,  that  it  was 
with  difficulty  that  he  could  prevail  upon  himself  to  pollute  their  lord 
ships  House  by  the  mere  repetition  of  it.  "  The  pope  in  the  pillory, 
the  pillory  in  hell — pelted  with  priests  by  the  devil!" 

"  But  this  was  not  a  mean  drunken  folly; — it  was  the  sober  malignity 
of  the  bigot  which  the  unguarded  sincerity  of  beastly  debauch  had  in 
discreetly  brought  into  open  day.  And  all  this  took  place  in  the  me 
tropolis,  as  he  had  already  stated,  which  was  the  station  of  a  Parlia 
ment,  and  is  still  the  residence  of  the  king's  representative." 

Thus,  in  whatever  point  of  view  we  look  at  the  established  church 
in  England,  we  do  not  find  it  accomplishing  any  thing  for  Christianity 
beyond  what  is  effected  elsewhere  under  a  different  system!  It  has 
not  produced  a  better  clergy  ;  nor  a  more  moral  gentry ;  nor  a  more 
educated  and  christianized  people ;  it  has  left  a  great  part  of  the  nation 
without  instruction;  without  temples  of  worship  ;  it  has  tended  to  de 
grade  the  clerical  character  by  the  intrigue  and  competition  to  which 
'its  large  livings  have  given  rise ;  and  by  the  abject  poverty  and  dis 
parity  of  rank  to  which  those  of  its  professors  not  so  fortunate"  as  to  gain 
the  prizes  in  the  lottery,  have  been  condemned.  It  may  be  an  excel 
lent  engine  of  state;  but,  as  our  civil  institutions,  with  which  we  are  per 
fectly  content,  do ;  not  stand  in  need  of  such  aid,  we  cheerfully  leave 
the  honor  and  profit  of  it  to  England. 


(NOTE  Z.  p.  424.) 

IN  Addition  to  the  facts  respecting  the  condition  and  character  of  the 
British  population  and  institutions,  which  I  have  scattered  through  the 
preceding  notes  ;  I  will  present  the  reader,  here,  with  a  miscellany  of  a 
similar  purport,  vouched  by  parliamentary  and  other  unquestionable 
evidence.  It  cannot  be  thought  harsh,  if,  too,  I  subjoin  a  few  extracts 
from  British  newspapers  and  journals,  in  the  manner  of  the  English 
travellers  and  critics,  when  they  treat  of  our  affairs.  The  Quarterly 
Review  lays  great  stress  upon  scraps  picked  out  of  American  gazettes, 
as  illustrations  of  the  state  and  morals  of  the  whole  American  people. 
Nee  lex  ulla  aequior  est,  &c. 

HOSPITALS,  PRISONS,  IMPRISONMENTS,  Sec. 

In  1814,  says  the  Parliamentary  Report  on  the  Police  of  the  Metro 
polis,  ninety-eight  boys  under  sixteen  were  committed  to  Newgate; 
four  of  them  of  nine  years,  eight  of  them  of  ten  years,  and  twelve 


50&  NOTES. 

PART  I.  of  them  of  eleven  years  of  age.  In  1815,  ninety-eight  boys  under 
s^-v^/  sixteen  were  committed;  and  in  1816,  146  of  the  same  age  were  com 
mitted.  In  1816,  there  were  committed  1683  persons  under  twen 
ty,  of  these  1281  were  of  seventeen  and  under,  and  957  of  these  of  se 
venteen  years  of  age  and  under,  were  committed  for  felonies.  From 
the  25th  of  August,  1814,  to  October  1816,  200  boys  had  been  in  cus 
tody.  Of  these,  twenty-tree  had  been  in  custody  for  the  first  offence  ; 
one  aged  sixteen  had  been  forty  times  in  custody,  and  another  had  been 
eighty  times  in  custody;  and  170  of  them  had  been  from  three  to  four 
limes  in  custody,  for  different  offences.  Of  these  200  there  were  con 
victed  141 ;  26  of  them  capitally,  the  youngest  of  these  was  nine  and  a 
half  years  old ;  42  were  transported,  the  youngest  of  them  was  eleven  ; 
and  73  were  imprisoned  for  different  terms.  Of  these  200  two-thirds 
were  under  fourteen,  and  down  to  eight  years  of  age.  The  remainder 
one-third  were  from  fourteen  to  seventeen  years  of  age.  Of  these  200 
miserable  beings,  two-thirds  could  neither  read  nor  write. 

"  On  the  snbjectof  transportation,  it  appeared,  that  since  1812,  4659 
persons  had  been  transported  to  Botany  Bay,  of  whom  3978  were  males, 
and  681  females.  Of  these,  1116  were  under  twenty-one;  of  whom,  5 
were  of  eleven  years;  7  of  twelve  years;  17  of  thirteen  years;  32  of 
fourteen  years  ;  and  65  of  fifteen  years  of  age.  Of  these  4659  persons, 
2055  were  transported  for  life,  726  for  fourteen  years,  and  1916  for  se 
ven  years.  Of  2038  who  were  on  board  the  hulks  in  1815,  there  were 
111  under  twenty  years  of  age,  amongst  whom  one  was  of  eleven,  two 
of  twelve,  and  four  of  fourteen  years  of  age.  The  number  of  boys  of 
seventeen  and  under,  confined  in  Newgate  in  1817,  was  359,  and  in 
1818,  of  persons  under  twenty-one  years  of  age,  six  hundred,  including 
males  and  females." 

"  On  the  first  day  of  January.  1817,  there  were  on  board  the  different 
hulks,  two  thousand  and  forty-one  prisoners ;  from  which  time  to  the 
first  of  January,  1818,  two  thousand  three  hundred  and  sixty -four  were 
received  on  board  from  the  different  goals ;  one  thousand  seven  hun 
dred  and  ninety  have  actually  been  transported  to  New  South  Wales, 
(being  an  excess  of  the  preceeding  year  of  seven  hundred  and  eighty- 
two  prisoners)  forty-five  have  died;  and  four  hundred  and  thirty-seven 
have  been  discharged,  or  removed  to  other  places  of  confinement ;  leav 
ing  on  board  the  respective  ships  on  the  first  of  January,  1818,  two 
thousand  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  prisoners."  (Official  Report  to 
Lord  Sidmouth.) 

The  third  Report  on  the  Prisons  of  the  Metropolis,  states,  that 
through  three  of  the  prisons  "  there  passed  in  1819,  10,371  persons,  all 
of  whom  must  have  gone  away  more  corrupt  than  they  came." 

In  the  Report  on  Mendicity  and  Vagrancy,  of  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  it  is  stated,  that  in  one  half  of  the  cases  of  those  who  beg,  beg 
gary  is  the  effect  of  real  distress.  ^ 

The  number  of  street  mendicants  in  London,  was  returned  at  15,288, 
of  whom  9218  were  children. 

Mr.  Bennet  said,  June  5, 1818,  "the  House  of  Commons  was  proba 
bly  not  aware,  that,  from  the  year  1816  to  1818,  no  less  than  3600  bad 
been  sent  to  Botany  Bay  ;  and  that  from  the  year  1798,  it  hud  cost  the 
country  no  less  than  four  millions  to  defray  the  expense  of  transporta 
tion." 

In  the  three  first  months  of  the  year  1818 — 118  persons  were  tried 
for  forgery  of  Bank  of  England  Notes— the  expenses  for  which  were 
£.19,982  5*.  6d. 

Lord  Castlereagh  (March  1,  1819,)  admitted,  that  it  appeared  by  the 
returns,  that  within  the  last  three  or  four  years,  crime  had  increased  to 
an  alarming  extent,  almost  in  the  proportion  of  two  to  one  ;  and  com 
paring  the  commitments  of  the  last  year  with  those  ten  years  ago,  in 


NOTES.  503 

some  classes  of  crime  they  were  in  the  ratio  of  nearly  three  to  one.  PART  I. 
Such  a  view  was  in  some  respects  appalling.  The  punishment  of  death;  .^^^^. 
certainly  had  increased  in  frequency  in  these  kingdoms.     At  the  close 
of  the  year  1805,  the  number  of  capital  convictions  was  350,  and  at  the 
termination  of  the  last  year  1250." 

Alderman  Wood  observed,  (March  1,  1819,)  "the  great  increase  of 
crimes  was  to  be  ascribed  to  the  promiscuous  congregation  of  prisoners 
left  without  employment.  He  had,  by  virtue  of  an  authority  from  Lord 
Sidmouth,  visited  all  the  goals  in  the  country,  and  was  convinced  that  it 
would  take  six  or  seven  years  to  make  an  efficient  parliamentary  in 
quiry." 

Mr  W.  Wynne,  (March  11,  1819.)  «  He  was  shocked  to  find,  and 
every  man  of  humanity  would  shudder  at  the  idea,  that  the  lunatic  sel 
dom  or  ever  obtained  his  release." 

Mr.  Bennet,  (May  20, 1818,)  presented  the  Report  of  the  Committee 
appointed  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  Fever  in  the  metropolis.  In  moving 
that  the  report  be  printed,  the  honourable  member  said,  "  the  medical 
institutions  of  this  city  were  very  defective.  In  all  the  Hospitals  it  was  the 
practice  to  mix  cases  of  contagious  fevers  with  common  instances  of  in 
disposition,  and  the  consequence  was,  that  not  only  patients,  but  nurses 
and  medical  persons  fell  victims  to  this  want  of  arrangement.  And  such 
was  the  deficiency  of  supply  of  assistance  for  the  sick  and  diseased 
poor,  that  at  the  principal  hospitals  four  out  of  Jive  cases  were  weekly 
refused."  The  committee  recommended  these  circumstances,  and  the 
evidence  contained  in  the  Report,  to  the  consideration  of  his  majesty's 
ministers. 

The  Marquis  of  Lansdowne  said,  (June  26, 1819.)  "  Their  lordships 
on  enquiry  would  find  that  deaths  had  occurred  in  lunatic  establish 
ments,  and  that  it  had  been  impossible  for  the  magistrates  after  the 
strictest  investigations,  to  discover  in  what  manner  the  unfortunate  be 
ings  had  been  disposed  of.  These  facts  offered  strong  grounds  for  their 
lordships  adopting  some  system  of  regulation;  but  another  powerful 
reason  in  favour  of  the  bill  was  the  situation  of  pauper  lunatics.  These 
unfortunate  persons  were  left  too  much  at  the  mercy  of  parish  officers. 
Let  their  lordships  read  the  evidence  of  a  noble  lord,  a  member  of  the 
other  House  of  Parliament,  he  meant  lord  R.  Seymour,  and  they  would 
be  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  a  remedy  for  the  great  abuses  in  the 
management  of  the  insane  poor.  They  were  often  kept  in  the  work 
houses  till  they  became  furious,  and  there  were  instances  of  their  being- 
bled  until  they  became,  from  weakness,  more  manageable." 

"  An  official  return,  printed  by  order  of  the  House  of  Commons,  pre 
sents  in  one  view  an  accurate  representation  of  the  state  of  crimes  made 
capital  by  the  law,  in  the  several  years,  from  the  year  1805  to  the  year 
1818,  inclusive.  From  this  it  appears,  that  the  total  number  of  persons 
convicted  of  burglary  in  said  interval,  was  1874,  of  whom,  199  were  exe 
cuted;  of  larceny  in  dwelling  houses  to  the  value  of  40s.  1119,  of  whom 
17  were  execute'd  ;  of  forgery  501,  of  whom  207  were  executed;  horse 
stealing  852,  of  whom  35  were  executed;  house  breaking  in  the  day 
time,  and  larceny,  761,  of  whom  17  were  executed;  of  murder  229,  o'f 
whom  202  were  executed ;  robbery  on  the  person,  the  highway,  and 
other  places,  848,  of  whom  118  were  executed;  sheep  stealing  896,  of 
whom  43  were  executed;  making,  with  various  other  offences  of  a  ca 
pital  nature  within  said  interval,  a  gross  total  of  convicted,  8430,  of 
whom  1035  were  executed."  (Bell's  Weekly  Messenger,  March  29, 
1819.) 

Sir  James  Macintosh  said,  (March  3,  1819.)  "  The  greatest  change 
produced  by  the  revolution  of  1688,  was  what  might  be  termed  the 
establishment  of  a  Parliamentary  government.  (Hear,  hear.)  Yet  it 
been  attended  with  one  important  inconvenience — the  unhappy 


504  NOTES. 

PART  I.  facility  afforded  to  legislation ;  the  ease  with  which  every  member  of 
s^-v-1^/  Parliament  could  indulge  his  whims  and  caprices ;  the  little  difficulty 
he  found  in  obtaining  measures  to  augment  the  number  of  capital  felo 
nies.  [Hear.]  An  anecdote,  confirmatory  of  t4iis  statement,  was  told 
by  Mr.  Burke,  in  the  early  part  of  his  public  career.  He  was  about  to 
leave  the  house,  when  he  was  detained  by  a  gentleman  who  wished 
him  to  remain.  Mr.  Burke  pleaded  urgent  business;  and  the  reply  of 
the  individual  who  held  him  was,  that  the  subject  on  which  the  house 
was  engaged  would  very  soon  be  dismissed,  as  it  was  only  upon  the 
subject  of  a  capital  felony,  without  benefit  of  clergy.  [LaTtghler.]  Mr. 
Burke  had  afterwards  stated,  that  he  had  no  doubt  that  he  could,  with 
out  difficulty,  have  obtained  the  assent  of  the  house  to  any  bill  he 
brought  in  for  capital  punishment." 

"  Mr.  Bennet  observed,  (June  26,  1816,)  that  the  abuse  of  the  system 
of  solitary  confinement  had  exceeded  any  thing  that  could  have  been 
imagined.  For  the  crime  of  vagrancy  a  person  had  been  subject  to 
this  terrible  punishment  for  thirteen  months,  one  for  seven  months,  and 
one  for  four  months. 

"Among  the  cases  mentioned  in  the  return  was  that  of  a  man  who  had 
been  kept  in  solitary  confinement  three  months,  for  destroying  a  phea 
sant's  egg!  That  was  to  say  the  miserable  being  who  fell  under  the 
sentence  was  kept  twenty-three  hours  out  of  twenty-four  within  four 
small  walls,  without  any  kind  of  employment,  either  entirely  open  to 
the  air,  or  quite  excluded  from  light;  and  the  crime  for  which  this 
punishment  was  inflicted  was  the  breaking  of  a  pheasant's  egg." 

"  Mr.  Western  said,  (April  2,  1819,)  that  in  looking  at  the  return? 
already  prepared  for  the  years  1817  and  1818,  it  would  appear  that 
there  were  two  thousand  persons  in  each  year,  against  whom  either  no 
bills  were  found,  or  who  were  not  prosecuted,  and  two  thousand  six 
hundred  who  were  acquitted.  In  the  period  which  elapsed  between 
July  and  the  Lent  assizes,  many  persons  had  been  confined,  who  had 
remained  in  prison  perhaps  fourteen  or  fifteen  months,  before  they  had 
been  tried — an  enormous  evil." 

"  Mr.  M.  A.  Taylor  asked,  (May  26,  1818,)  did  the  house  consider 
it  fit  and  proper  that  this  state  of  things  should  continue  ;  that  in  four 
counties  there  should  be  but  one  assize  in  a  year;  and  that  prisoners 
should,  notwithstanding  all  the  exertions  of  magistrates,  in  disposing  of 
minor  offences,  lie  for  so  many  months  in  confinement,  before  they 
were  brought  to  trial.  A  man,  taken  up  on  suspicion,  and  sent  to  the 
county  gaol,  must  in  sucli  a  case  be  ruined,  however  innocent  of  the 
crime  imputed  to  him.  We  might  boast  as  much  as  we  pleased  of  our 
superior  laws,  and  practice  of  administering  them,  but  there  was  no 
country  in  Europe  where  so  monstrous  a  defect  existed  in  the  judiciary 
system — a  defect  equally  injurious  to  individuals  and  disgraceful  to  the 
character  of  justice.  A  case  of  manslaughter  had  recently  occurred, 
in  which  the  prisoner  was  acquitted,  after  lying  eleven  months  in  con 
finement;  the  whole  punishment  annexed  by  law  to  the  conviction  ot 
that  offence  being  but  twelve  months'  imprisonment.  One  man  he  had 
known  indicted  for  stealing  a  game  cock,  who  was  closely  confined  for 
nine  months  ;  and  when  he  was  at  length  brought  to  trial,  there  was  not 
a  shadow  of  evidence  to  prove  his  guilt." 

"  Mr.  W.  Smith  said,  (May  26,  1818,)  that  he  had  been  informed  by 
the  town  clerk  of  Norwich,  that  instances  had  occurred  of  persons 
being  confined  nine  or  ten  months  previously  to  their  trial ;  and  a  navy 
surgeon  had  been  confined  for  twelve  months,  and  then  acquitted.  By 
so  long  an  imprisonment,  individuals  sometimes  suffered  more  than 
they  would  have  done,  if  convicted,  from  the  sentence  of  the  law." 

"  Mr.  Bennet  said,  (May  6,  1817,)  that  last  year  there  was  a  wretched 
individual  in  the  Fleet,  who  had  been  confined  there,  under  an  order 


NOTES.  505 

of  the  court  of  chancery,  for  contempt  of  court,  for  no  less  a  time  than  PART  I. 
thirty-one  years.  The  name  of  that  man  was  Thomas  Williams.  He 
had  visited  him  in  his  wretched  house  of  bondage,  where  he  found 
him  sinking  under  all  the  miseries  that  can  afflict  humanity  ;  and  on  the 
following  day  he  died.  There  were  at  this  moment  within  the  walls  of 
the  same  prison,  besides  the  petitioner,  a  woman  who  had  been  in  con 
finement  twenty-eight  years,  and  two  others  who  had  been  there  seven 
teen  years." 

"  It  was  worthy  of  remark  that  eight  hundred  persons  were  commit 
ted  to  Clerkenwell  prison,  in  one  year,  chiefly  for  assaults." 

The  following  is  an  authentic  list  of  persons  who,  in  October,  1817, 
were  confined  in  the  Fleet  prison  alone,  for  contempt  of  court,  no  other 
charges  being  alleged  against  them  :  viz.  Hannah  Baker,  confined  twen 
ty-seven  'years ;  Charles  Bulmer,  eighteen  years ;  Ann  Britner,  ten 
years  ;  Richard  Bell,  five  years  ;  Matthew  Bland,  five  years ;  Jeremiah 
Board,  three  years  ;  Elizabeth  Dawson,  seven  years ;  David  William, 
six  years  ;  Mary  Tiuch,  three  years  ;  Samuel  Mansell,  four  years  ;  John 
Melson,  three  years;  George  Picked,  fifteen  years;  Thomas  Pale, 
three  years;  Peter  Rigby,  four  years;  I.  Soribner,  eight  years ;  John 
Watts,  four  years ;  John  Somax,  seven  years  ;  William  Smith,  eighteen 
years. 

"  Mr.  Bennet  said,  (March  28,  1817,)  that  the  situation  of  the  pri 
sons  in  Dublin  was  miserable  in  the  extreme,  and  certainly  it  could  not 
be  too  much  lamented  that  any  human  beings  should  be  confined  in 
them." 

"  Mr.  Peele  entirely  coincided  in  the  opinion  of  the  honourable  gen 
tleman,  as  to  the  miserable  state  of  the  prisons  in  Ireland,  and  should 
be  happy  to  find  that  any  measures  could  be  taken,  which  would  lead 
to  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  wretched  inmates." 

"The  Marquis  of  Lansdowne  said,  (June  3, 1818,)  from  the  informa 
tion  contained  in  the  report  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  state  of 
the  prisons  of  the  kingdom,  it  appeared  that,  in  the  course  of  ten 
years,  such  had  been  the  progress  of  crimes,  that  they  had  increased 
to  three  times  their  former  amount.  It  was  not  improbable  that,  out 
of  the  number  annually  consigned  to  the  prisons,  thirteen  thousand  were 
permitted  to  return  to  society,  either  by  being  acquitted,  or  after  hav 
ing  undergone  the  sentence  of  imprisonment.  In  what  a  state  of  de 
gradation  must  they,  under  their  present  system,  return  to  the  duties, 
or,  he  was  afraid,  rather  to  the  vices  of  civilized  men." 

"  Mr.  Buxton  said,  that  from  parliamentary  documents  it  could  be 
seen,  that  it  was  ten  to  one  that  an  offender  was  not  taken,  fifty  to  one 
that  he  was  not  prosecuted,  a  hundred  to  one  that  he  was  not  convicted, 
and  more  than  a  thousand  to  one  that  he  was  not  executed." 

"Alderman  Wood  rose  (House  of  Commons,  March  12,  1819).  He 
said,  that  the  petition  which  he  had  to  present  did  not  complain  of  the 
heavy  burdens  which  the  lord  mayor  and  corporation  had  to  bear,  in 
supporting  the  various  persons  confined  in  the  different  prisons  of  the 
metropolis,  but  of  the  crowded  state  of  the  gaols  at  the  present  mo 
ment.  They  were  so  full,  that  it  was  totally  impossible  to  attempt  any 
reformation  in  their  inmates,  by  classifying  them,  according  to  the 
crimes  of  which  they  had  been  guilty.  Newgate  was  filled  to  repletion 
with  criminals  under  different  sentences  :  there  were  now  in  it  forty- 
seven  individuals  condemned  to  death,  besides  sixteen  individuals  for 
lesser  offences,  who  had  been  sent  there  by  the  magistrates  from  the 
Clerkenwell  sessions.  Of  these  sixteen  he  was  sorry  to  observe  that 
fifteen  were  for  abominable  and  infamous  offences,  and  that  from  want 
of  space  they  had  all  been  placed  in  one  room.  This  was  an  evil  which 
ought,  by  all  means,  to  be  remedied.  There  was  another,  also,  which 
he  wished  to  press  upon  the  attention  of  the  house.  There  was  no 
VOL.  I.— 3  S 


506  NOTES. 

PART  I.  accommodation,  in  any  of  the  prisons,  for  stale  prisoners;  and  he 
thought  it  rather  hard  that  an  individual  of  respectable  rank  and  cha 
racter  should  be  compelled  to  herd  with  common  felons,  as  he  now  was- 
obliged  to  do,  if  committed  by  that  house.  Latterly,  Newgate  had  been 
so  crowded,  that  in  the  fifteen  condemned  cells  they  had  been  obliged 
to  place  the  forty-seven  men  now  under  sentence  of  death,  thus  giving 
a  proportion  of  more  than  three  inmates  to  each  cell ;  which  was  much 
greater  than  it  ought  to  be." 

"Men,  who  see  their  lives  respected  and  thought  of  value  by  others, 
come  to  respect  that  gift  of  God  themselves.  Hefore  he  sat  down,  he 
begged  leave  to  say  a  few  words  on  a  public  spectacle,  which  had  been 
made  at  Newgate,  of  a  wretched  man,  who,  being  accused  of  murder, 
had  destroyed  himself.  It  was  stated  in  the  newspapers  of  that  day, 
that  the  mangled  and  bloody  corpse  had  been  exhibited  in  an  elevated 
situation,  with  a  small  gallows  erected  over  it,  to  which  was  appended 
the  fatal  instrument  of  destruction.  Such  a  horrid  exposition,  he  was 
persuaded,  was  calculated  to  produce  the  most  mischievous  conse 
quences  on  the  men,  women,  and  children  by  whom  it  was  beheld." 
(Sir  Samuel  Romilly,  ib.  Feb.  25,  1818  ) 

"  Mr.  Burton  said,  (March  3,  1819,)  with  respect  to  the  effect  which 
an  execution  was  supposed  to  have  upon  the  minds  of  the  criminals,  he 
could  assure  the  house  that  it  was  next  to  nothing ;  and  if  any  gentle 
man  would  expose  his  feelings  to  the  pain  of  seeing  one  of  these 
dreadful  exhibitions,  the  truth  of  his  assertion  would  immediately  ap 
pear. 

"He  believed  there  was  not  a  single  instance  of  an  execution  having 
taken  place,  without  some  robberry  being  committed  at  the  same  time, 
under  the  gallows.  Indeed,  it  had  been  admitted  by  one  of  the  light- 
fingered  gang,  that  an  execution  was  their  harvest,  as,  while  people's 
eyes  were  open  above,  their  pockets  were  loose  below. 

"  There  was  a  fact  within  his  recollection,  which,  if  possible,  would 
place  the  matter  in  a  stronger  light.  A  man  was  executed  in  this  me 
tropolis  for  selling  forged  bank-notes:  his  body  was  given  over  to  his 
family,  and  it  was  taken  home.  The  first  feeling  would  be  that  of  com 
passion  towards  his  afflicted  children,  and  a  disconsolate  widow ;  but 
the  house  would  be  shocked  to  hear  that  this  unhappy  family  and 
mourning  friends  were  actually  seized  by  the  police-officers,  in  the  act 
of  selling  forged  noles,  over  the  dead  body.  It  was  evident,  therefore, 
that  something  ought  to  be  done." 

"From  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  on 
the  Police  of  the  Metropolis,  it  appears  that  many  thousands  of  boys 
are  daily  engaged  in  the  commission  of  crime :  that  in  one  prison  only 
(Clerkenwell),  where  young  and  old  are  all  mixed  indiscriminately 
together,  three  hundred  and  ninety-nine  boys,  under  twenty,  were  con 
fided  for  felonies  in  the  last  year;  of  whom  was  one  of  nine,  two  were 
of  ten,  seven  of  eleven,  fourteen  of  twelve,  and  thirty-two  of  thirteen 
years  of  age  ! 

"  Nor  is  it  possible  to  pass  over,  in  this  inquiry,  the  dreadful  slate  of 
our  infant  population,  and  the  alarming  increase  of  juvenile  delinquency* 
To  no  cause  whatever  can  this  be  attributed  to  with  so  much  certainty 
as  to  the  depraved  and  hardened  disposition  of  the  parents,  the  result 
of  that  habit  of  intoxication,  which  induces  them  either  to  abandon 
their  offspring  altogether,  or,  in  order  to  supply  the  cravings  of  their 
depraved  -tppetites,  to  incite  them  to,  and  instruct  them  in,  every  spe 
cies  of  theft  and  depredation.  The  extent  to  which  this  has  been  car 
ried,  not  only  in  the  metropolis,  but  in  some  of  the  principal  towns  in 
the  kingdom,  would  be  as  incredible  as  it  is  disgraceful,  were  it  not 
from  its  almost  daily  exposure  in  our  judicial  proceedings." 

Roscoe's  Observations  on  Penal  Jurisprudence,  1819, 


NOTES.  607 

PARTI. 

COURTS  OF  LAW  AND  CHANCERY.  s^v*^< 

[Mr.  Brougham,  June  3d,  1818.]  A  number  of  the  objections  which 
had  been  made  to  the  hill  (for  a  committee  to  enquire  into  the  edu 
cation  of  the  poor)  were  grounded  on  the  confidence  which  those 
who  made  them  reposed  in  courts  of  law,  as  affording  the  means  of 
correcting  abuses.  He  confessed  that  he  himself  had  not  any  reliance 
on  courts  of  law  in  that  respect,  especially  with  reference  to  expedi 
tion  and  cheapness.  He  allowed  those  courts  the  possession  of  learn 
ing  without  stint.  He  allowed  them  great  copiousness,  great  power 
of  drawing  out  written  argument.  The  faculty  of  caring  nothing 
for  the  time  and  patience  of  suitors,  and  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  their  clients'  money  they  enjoyed  in  a  perfection  which  the  wild 
est  sallies  of  imagination  could  not  go  beyond.  But  as  to  expedition 
and  cheapness,  and  attention  to  the  comfort  of  those  who  were  in 
volved  in  the  business  of  those  courts,  they  were  qualities  by  which 
they  were  certainly  not  distinguished- 

Notwithstanding  all  the  good  qualities  on  the  part  of  the  noble 
and  learned  lord  (Chancellor,)  it  was  his  (Mr.  Brougham's)  duty  to  say, 
that  there  was  something  in  the  court  of  chancery  that  set  at  defiance 
all  calculations  of  cost  and  time,  and  rendered  the  celebrated  irony  of 
Swift,  when  he  made  Gulliver  tell  the  worthy  Hynynhmn,  his  master, 
(what  he  says,  his  honour  found  it  hard  to  conceive,)  that  his  father  had 
been  wholly  ruined  by  the  misfortune  of  having  gained  a  chancery  suit, 
with  full  costs,  not  only  not  an  exaggeration,  but  a  strictly  correct  de 
scription  of  the  fact. 

Sir  John  Newport  stated  (June  2d,  1818,)  "To  show  the  enormous 
nature  of  the  fees  in  the  Court  of  Chancery,  he  might  mention  that  in 
one  case,  the  fees  for  docketing,  enrolling,  exemplifying,  and  register 
ing  a  decree,  amounted  to  upwards  of  800/." 

The  Marquis  of  Lansdowne  observed  (March  6th  1818,)  "That  no 
source  of  revenue  operated  to  produce  greater  mischief  to  the  poorer 
classes,  than  the  stamps  on  law  proceedings.  The  expense  they  occa 
sioned  was  an  obstacle  to  the  attainment  of  justice. 

"  As  to  the  present  measure,  he  continued,  it  went  merely  to  re 
lieve  unfortunate  poor  persons  from  paying  the  fees  on  pardons,  which 
amounted  on  each  to  about  60/,  and  therefore  it  could  operate  in  a  very 
slight  degree  towards  the  reduction  of  the  revenue.'* 

"  The  bill  of  the  solicitor  of  the  excise,  in  the  prosecution  of  Weaver, 
for  the  offence  of  selling  a  certain  drug  to  a  brewer,  amounted  to  nearly 
250/.  In  this  case,  there  were  five  counsel  employed  for  the  Crown, 
and  the  penalty  ultimately  recovered  from  the  delinquent  was  200/" 

The  following  return  has  been  laid  before  the  House  of  Commons,  of 
the  amount  of  property  locked  up  in  the  Court  of  Chancery  in  England; 
viz.  in  1796,  upwards  of  fourteen  millions  of  pounds  sterling;  in  1806, 
upwards  of  twenty-one  millions;  in  1816,  upwards  of  thirty-one  mil 
lions;  in  1818,  upwards  of  thirty-three  millions. 

Mr.  Hume  (March  1814,)  begged  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House 
of  Commons  particularly  to  the  police  in  India.  Persons  were  frequently 
taken  up,  and  months  elapsed  before  any  information  was  exhibited 
against  them.  In  the  interval,  they  were  confined  in  crowded  and  un 
healthy  prisons,  where  death  not  unfrequently  overtook  them,  or  after 
enduring  the  aggravated  misery  of  imprisonment,  nothing  whatever 
appeared  against  them,  and  they  were  liberated.  The  whole  system  of 
police  at  Bengal  was  conducted  by  a  set  of  spies,  who  were  generally 
composed  of  bands  of  robbers;  these,  when  once  discharged,  were  let 
loose  to  ravage  the  surrounding  country  By  a  minute  of  the  Bengal  go 
vernment,  dated  the  24th  of  November,  1810,  it  appeared  that  the  pro- 


508  NOTES. 

PART  I.  fession  of  a  spy,  in  India,  took  its  rise  upon  the  order  issued  in  1792,  for 
.  ji*  _  -^.  the  encouragement  of  head  money.  Every  police-office  had  its  regular 
and  organized  set  of  spies,  who  shared  the  reward  or  head  money  with 
the  chief  of  the  deceits  (a  species  of  robbers  )  Much  had  been  said  by  an 
honourable  member  (sir  W.  Burroughs)  as  to  the  economy  observed  in 
the  appointment  of  legal  men  in  India,  affecting  the  administration  of 
justice.  So  far  from  there  being  any  thing  like  economy  in  this  respect, 
the  whole  of  Europe,  p*it  together,  was  at  less  expense  for  law  officers 
than  India  alone — (Hear.)  The  whole  revenue  of  India  was  estimated 
at  11,000,000/. ;  the  charges  of  the  law  altogether  were  no  less  than 
1,785,000/.  sterling,  above  one-eleventh  of  that  revenue. 


BANKRUPTCY. 

" In  Scotland,"  (said  lord  Archibald  Hamilton,  1818,)  "the  burgh 
of  Aberdeen  had  been  declared  bankrupt  for  230,000/.  sterling,  attend 
ed  with  extensive  ruin.  It  had  dissolved  in  its  rottenness." 

"Sir William  Curtis  remarked,  (Feb.  24th,  1818,)  that  rich  men  can 
go  to  the  King's-bench  prison,  and  drink  their  burgundy  :  They  first 
rob  their  neighbours  and  then  get  whitewashed." 

"  Up  to  the  1st  of  March,  1817,  (said  Mr.  Waithman,  Feb.  12th  1819,) 
9000  persons  were  discharged  under  the  debtors'  insolvent  act,  whose 
united  debts  amounted  to  nine  millions  sterling;  whilst  the  property 
which  they  had  given  up  to  their  creditors  would  not,  on  the  average, 
pay  a  dividend  of  one  half  a  farthing  in  the  pound." 

"  Sir  S.  Romilly  observed,  that  every  man  conversant  with  the  bank 
rupt  laws  must  know,  that  not  a  year  passed  without  the  occurrence  ot 
a  great  number  of  fraudulent  bankruptcies."  (Ib.Feb.  25th,  1816.) 

Mr.  Lockart  rose  (Feb.  17th,  1817,)  according  to  notice,  to  move  for 
the  introduction  of  a  bill  to  amend  the  bankrupt  laws. 

The  evil  of  which  he  complained  was  the  multiplication  of  fraudu 
lent  bankruptcies  to  an  extent  which  threatened  the  most  frightful  con 
sequences  to  the  commerce  and  morals  of  the  country. 

By  late  returns  to  Parliament  it  appears,  that  the  aggregate  number  of 
insolvent  debtors  discharged  since  the  last  return  in  1815,  up  to  1st  of 
February,  1819,  was  13,291 ;  the  amount  of  their  debts  9,506,837/.  16s. 
ll^d. ;  and  the  amount  of  dividends  but  sixty  thousand  pounds. 

"Every  one  who  heard  him,"  said  Mr.  Buxton,  (House  of  Commons, 
March  3d,  1819,)  "certainly  must  know  how  many  fraudulent  circum 
stances  were  connected  with  almost  all  the  bankruptcies  that  now  take 
place;  and  after  a  more  careful  examination,  it  had  been  declared,  on 
the  highest  authority,  that  of  the  bankruptcies  which  occurred,  by  far 
the  greater  number  were  of  a  fraudulent  description." 


FINANCIAL  MATTERS. 

Mr.  Baring  said,  (1817,)  "there  could  be  no  doubt,  notwithstanding 
the  delicacy  which  had  been  professed  on  the  subject  of  touching  the 
sinking  fund,  that  to  all  practical  purposes,  it  was  completely  swept 
away." 

Mr.  Ricardo  (June  10,  1819,)  had  already  opposed  the  grant  of  three 
millions  towards  a  sinking  fund,  because  he  did  not  wish  to  place  such 
a  fund  at  the  mercy  of  ministers,  who  would  take  it  whenever  they 
thought  urgent  necessity  required  it.  He  did  not  mean  to  say  that  it 


NOTES.  509 

would  be  better  with  one  set  of  ministers  than  another,  for  he  looked  PART  I. 
upon  it  that  all  ministers  would  be  anxious,  on  cases  of  what  they  con-  s^-v^^x 
ceived  emergency,  to  appropriate  it  to  the  public  use.     He  thought, 
therefore,  the  whole  thing  u  delusion  upon  the  public,  and  on  that  ac 
count  he  would  never  support  a  tax  to  maintain  it. 

The  evil  of  the  national  debt  ought  to  be  met.  It  was  an  evil  which 
almost  any  sacrifice  would  not  be  too  great  to  get  rid  of.  It  destroyed 
the  equilibrium  of  prices,  occasioned  many  persons  to  emigrate  to  other 
countries,  in  order  to  avoid  the  burden  of  taxation  which  it  entailed,  and 
hung  like  a  millstone  round  the  exertion  and  industry  of  the  country. 
He  therefore,  never  would  give  a  vote  in  support  of  any  tax  which 
went  to  continue  a  sinking  fund ;  for  if  that  fund  were  to  amount  to 
eight  millions,  ministers  would  on  any  emergency  give  the  same  account 
of  it  as  they  did  at  present.  The  delusion  of  it  was  seen  long  ago  by 
all  those  who  were  acquainted  with  the  subject ;  and  it  would  have 
been  but  fair  and  sound  policy  to  have  exposed  it  long  ago. 

Mr.  Brougham  said,  (June  8,  1819)  "  How  stood  the  circumstances 
with  respect  to  this  fund  ?  In  1786,  it  amounted  to  one  million,  and  an 
addition  of  200,000/.  was  made  soon  after.  In  1792,  it  was  increased  by 
so  much  of  each  loan,  as  gave  assurance  that  at  the  end  of  45  years  such 
loan  would  be  expunged  by  the  gradual  operation  of  the  sinking  fund. 
This  pledge  continued  to  1802,  when  new  arrangements  were  made  by 
Lord  Sidmouth,  that  did  not  much  postpone  the  term  of  payment.  The 
operation  of  1813,  was  to  accelerate  the  liquidation  of  the  debt,  towards 
the  close  of  the  period  pledged  for  that  purpose,  and  the  fund  was  then 
reduced  to  15,000,000/.  instead  of  21,000,000/.  to  which  it  had  accumu 
lated.  The  fund  holder  was  then  told  that  repayment  would  go  on  at 
an  accelerated  rate  from  a  certain  term,  and  now  came  the  plan  by 
wh'ch  all  this  was  bid  adieu  to,  and  the  sinking  fund  reduced  to 
5,000,000/.  Did  not  this  place  the  public  credit  on  a  different  footing  ? 
and  was  it  not,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  breach  of  faith  ? 

"Lord  Holland  stated,  in  a  speech  sometime  since,  that  the  royal  fa 
mily  of  England,  that  is  to  say,  the  maintenance  of  the  mere  state  of  the 
crown,  cost  the  country  one  million  two  hundred  thousand  pounds !  or 
nearly  one-fourth  of  the  whole  assessed  taxes  of  the  kingdom."  (Bell's 
Weekly  Messenger,  May  18,  1819.) 

"  Mr.  Tierney  stated,  (April  5,  1818,)  that  his  majesty's  privy  purse 
amounted  to  sixty  thousand  pounds.  A  privy  purse  of  sixty  thousand 
pounds,  in  the  present  state  of  his  majesty  !  {Hear,  hear.]  Out  of  this 
sum  he  admitted  that  the  allowance  to  the  physicians  had  to  be  paid ; 
but  on  the  most  liberal  allowance  to  them,  this  would  not  amount  to 
eighteen  thousand  pounds  a  year.  There  was  also  received  out  of  the 
dutchy  of  Lancaster  ten  thousand  pounds.  So  that  here  was  seventy 
thousand  pounds  that  her  majesty  had,  without  there  being  a  necessity 
of  rendering  an  account  for  any  part  of  it.  With  the  deduction  of  an 
allowance  to  the  physicians,  and  a  few  pensions,  this  was  a  fund  for  ac 
cumulation  for  somebody.  Her  majesty's  establishment  amounted  to 
one  hundred  thousand  pounds  a  year.  These  two  sums  together  made 
one  hundred  and  seventy  thousand  pounds.  But  besides  this,  her  ma 
jesty  was  allowed  for  her  Windsor  establishment  fifty-eight  thousand 
pounds,  and  an  additional  allowance  of  one  thousand  pounds  a  year  for 
what  was  called  travelling  expenses ;  and  the  allowance  for  the  two 
princesses  was  twenty-six  thousand  pounds,  making  the  total  of  the 
Windsor  establishments  amount  to  no  less  a  sum  than  two  hundred  and 
sixty-four  thousand  pounds  per  annum."  [Hear,  hear!] 

"  Mr.  Brougham  considered,  (1817,)  that  the  amount  of  the  pension 
list  in  1809,  a  year  when  the  four  and  a  half  per  cent  fell  extremely 
short,  was  two  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  pounds.  Upon  that  list 
were  to  be  found  the  names  of  those  who  had  rendered  no  service  ; 


510 


NOTES, 


PART  I.    persons  who  belonged  to  families  not  more  distinguished  for  their  ant; 
^^•v-^/  quity  and  rank  than  for  their  wealth  and  splendour,  and  whose  only 
title  to  their  pensions,  he  presumed,  was  their  invariable  support  of  the 
ministers  of  the  crown,  whoever  those  ministers  might  be." 

"The  sinecure  vacated  by  the  death  of  the  Earl  of  Buckingham 
shire  had  been  worse  than  useless  ;  it  had  served  as  a  screen  to  the 
most  shocking  abuses,  and  the  most  abominable  frauds."  (Lord  Lans- 
downe,  May,  1816.) 

"Sir  H.  Parnellsaid,  (July  13,  1819,)  in  stating  the  increase  of  the 
civil  list,  it  ought  to  have  been  stated  to  have  increased  from  900,000/. 
to  1,030,000/." 

"  Mr.  Calcraft  expressed  his  obligations  to  the  honourable  baronet 
for  bringing  forward  his  resolutions,  and  trusted  that  he  would  not  be 
deterred  from  future  inquiries  by  the  criticisms  which  every  man  who 
talked  of  economy  was  exposed  to,  from  the  bench  opposite  him.  The 
main  resolutions  had  not  been  grappled  with  by  the  right  honourable 
getleman  (Mr.  Long,)  thai  the  revenue  was  collected  at  the  enormous 
expense  of  5,500,000/.  Had  he  shown  that  it  was  collected  at  less  ? 
This  was  the  key  to  the  popularity  and  consequence  of  the  present 
administration.  So  long  as  they  had  these  5,500,000/.  to  distribute,  so 
long  would  they  hear,  from  those  who  received  it,  of  their  popularity." 

"The  credit  of  the  custom  house  tables  (said  Mr.  Brougham,  in  his 
speech  of  June  16,  1812,)  would  be  but  small,  after  the  account  of 
them  which  appears  in  evidence.  But  the  evidence  sufficiently  ex 
plains  on  which  side  of  the  scale  the  error  is  likely  to  lie.  There  is, 
it  would  seem,  a  fellow  feeling  between  the  gentlemen  at  the  custom 
house,  and  their  honoured  masters  at  the  board  of  trade  ;  so  that  when 
the  latter  wish  to  make  blazing  statements  of  national  prosperity,  the 
former  are  ready  to  find  the  fact.  The  managing  clerk  of  one  of  the 
greatest  mercantile  houses  in  the  city,  tells  you  that  he  has  known 
packages  entered  at  500/.  which  were  not  worth  50/. — that  those  sums 
are  entered  at  random,  and  cannot  be  at  all  relied  upon.  Other  wit 
nesses,  particularly  from  Liverpool,  confirm  the  same  fact ;  and  I  know, 
as  does  my  right  lion,  friend,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  who 
was  present,  that  the  head  of  the  same  respectable  house,  a  few  days 
ago  mentioned  at  an  official  conference  with  him,  an  instance  of  his 
own  clerks  being  desired  at  the  Custom  Hou.ce,  to  make  a  double  entry 
of  an  article  for  export.  After  such  facts  as  these,  I  say  it  is  in  vain  to 
talk  of  Custom  House  returns,  even  if  they  were  contradicted  in  no  re 
spect  by  other  evidence." 

The  consumers  of  tea,  said  Mr.  Elllce,  (June  18, 1819,)  paid  not  only 
3,500,000/.  to  government,  but  2,OOOrOOO/.  to  the  monopoly  of  the  East 
India  company. 

Civil  Contingencies  Bill— March  19, 1819— 3191/  for  expense  of  fur 
niture  for  one  room  in  the  Royal  Yatcht— 13.300/.  expences  of  grand 
duke  Nicholas.  22;500/  for  snuff  boxes  to  foreign  ministers.  10,897/. 
for  fees  and  presents  to  German  Barons,  &c. 

Mr.  Tierney  said,  (1819.)  that  the  amount  of  pensions  for  England 
and  Scotland,  independently  of  those  founded  on  parliamentary  grants, 
was  250,OOU/. 


LOOSE  EXTRACTS  FROM  ENGLISH  JOURNALS. 

"After  the  bodies  of  the  criminals,  Chennol  and  Chalcraft,  had  been 
cut  down,  they  were  received  into  the  waggon,  which  conveyed  them 
to  the  place  of  execution,  and  extended  on  the  eK-vated  stage  which 
had  been  constructed  in  the  vehicle.  The  procession  of  officers,  con- 


NOTES.  511 

stables,  Sec.  was  then  re-formed,  and  the  remains  of  the  murderers  were  .  PART  I. 
conveyed  in  slow  and  awful  silence  through  the  town  of  Godalming,  un-  \^**r^s 
til  they  arrived  at  the  house  of  the  late  Mr.  Channel.     Here  the  pro 
cession  halted,  and  the  bodies  of  Chennel  and  Chalcraft  were  removed 
from  the  waggon  into  the  kitchen  of  the  house,  one  of  them  being 
placed  on  the  very  spot  where  the  housekeeper,  Elizabeth  Wilson,  was 
found  murdered.     After  this  the  surgeon  proceeded  to  perform  the 
first  offices  of  dissection,  and  the  bodies  in  this  state  were  left  to  the 
gaze  of  thousands,  who  throughout  the  day  eagerly  rushed  in  to  view 
them.     (Bell's  Weekly  Messenger,  1818.) 

"  The  country  assizes,"  said  the  London  Courier  of  April  4,  1817 — 
"  now  just  terminated,  have  presented  a  list  of  criminals  quite  unparal 
leled  for  magnitude  in  the  history  of  this  country.  At  no  former  pe 
riod  have  they  amounted  to  more  than  a  fourth  or  a  third  part  of  their 
present  number.  From  fifteen  to  fifty  capital  convictions  have  taken  place 
in  almost  every  county.  At  Lancaster  assizes  forty-six  persons  received 
sentence  of  death.  In  October  last  it  was  proved  in  a  court  of  law,  that 
a  club  of  conspirators  (Halters)  at  Manchester,  perjured  themselves  by 
wholesale,  to  the  amount  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  at  a  time  ;  and  now  it 
is  just  proved  that  a  knot  of  assassins  can  be  as  easily  hired  in  England, 
as  in  Italy.  Three  hundred  of  Messrs.  Bodin's  workmen,  at  Loughbo- 
rough,  having  conspired  against  their  employers  about  wages,  subscrib 
ed  a  fund,  and  hired,  at  five  pounds  each  man,  a  squad  of  assassins  well 
skilled  in  the  art  of  house  burning,  and  murder,  who  destroyed  their 
master's  premises  in  revenge." 

Revolt  in  Winchester  College. — "  We  are  happy  to  state,  that  tranquil 
lity  has  been  restored  at  Winchester  College,  that  the  business  of  the 
school  has  been  resumed  with  order,  and  that  the  young  gentlemen 
have  since  shown  perfect  resignation  to  the  will  of  their  able  teachers 
About  ten  of  the  gentlemen  commoners  have  been  allowed  to  resign. 
There  were  only  six  (out  of  230)  who  did  not  join  in  the  revolt,  the 
two  senior  and  four  other  college  prefects.  (Bell's  Weekly  Messen 
ger,  May  18,  1818.) 

We  are  happy  to  announce  that  prosecutions  have  been  brought 
against  a  number  of  grocers  for  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  a  perni 
cious  substitute  for  tea,  composed  of  the  leaves  of  the  black  and  white 
thorn,  boiled,  dried  on  copper  plates,  and  coloured  with  logwood,  ver- 
digrease,  and  Dutch  pink.  The  facts  were  proved  at  great  length,  and 
verdicts  found  in  the  Court  of  Exchequer,  on  Saturday,  against  no  fewer 
than  ten  dealers  in  the  metropolis,  for  this  fraud.  Several  of  them  sub 
mitted  to  conviction  without  resistance,  and  thus  the  important  fact  is 
established,  that  this  deleterious  mixture  is  imposed  on  the  fair  trader. 

There  are  other  articles  of  human  consumption,  equally  exposed  to 
similar  frauds.  Porter  and  ale,  it  has  frequently  been  proved,  have 
been  mixed  with  drugs  of  the  most  pernicious  quality.  Port  wine,  as 
it  is  called,  and  especially  that  sold  at  very  low  prices,  it  is  known,  has 
been  manufactured  from  sloe  juice,  British  brandy,  and  logwood.  Gin, 
in  order  that  it  may  have  the  grip,  or  have  the  appearance  of  being  par 
ticularly  strong,  is  known  to  be  adulterated  with  a  decoction  of  long 
pepper,  or  a  small  quantity  of  aquafortis.  Bread,  from  public  convic 
tions,  is  known  to  have  been  made  of  a  mixture  of  flour,  ground  stone, 
chalk,  and  pulverized  bones.  Milk  to  have  been  adulterated  with 
whitening  and  water.  Sugar  to  have  been  mixed  with  sand.  Pepper 
with  fuller's  earth  and  other  earths.  Mustard,  with  cheap  pungent 
seeds.  Tobacco,  with  various  common  British  herbs.  There  is  scarce 
an  article  of  ordinary  consumption,  which  is  not  rendered  destructive  by 
the  infamous  and  fraudulent  practices  of  interested  persons.  (Bell's 
Weekly  Messenger,  May  13,  1818.) 

"The  practice  of  adulterating  flour  with  bones  becomes  more  com- 


512  NOTES. 

PART  I.  mon.   The  price  of  pulverized  bones,  lias  accordingly,  advanced  within 

^^•V*^/  these  few  years  from  ten  pence  a  bushel,  to  eighteen  pence  to  the  first 

purchasers.     The  collection  of  bones,  is,  in  fact,  pursued  as  a  regular 

trade  in  the  metropolis.     Fine  pulverized  clay  is  also  mixed  with  the 

prime  necessary  of  life.     (Literary  Panorama,  July  19, 1819.) 

"The  contraband  trade  of  Great  Britain  is  estimated  at  about  fifteen 
millions  sterling  a  year,  by  which  the  revenue  is  annually  defrauded  of 
about  two  millions." 

"December  1,  1818.  Lord  Ranelagh  indicted,  convicted  and  fined 
fifty  pounds  for  extorting  money  (for  the  use  of  his  servants)  from  three 
young  men  who  took,  shelter  on  his  grounds  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames 
in  a  thunder  storrn." 

"Dec.  3,  1818.  A  British  naval  officer  connected  with  the  dock  yard 
at  Chatham,  is  condemned  (at  St.  Omer's)  to  five  years  labour  in  chains 
for  uttering  forged  bank  of  England  notes  in  the  neighbourhood  of  St. 
Omer,  Dunkirk  and  Calais." 

"Feb.  26,  1819.  Bartholomew  Broughton,  an  officer  in  If  is  Majesty^s 
navy,  was  brought  before  Mr.  Alderman  Cox,  as  sitting  alderman, 
charged  with  felony  in  stealing  bank  notes  and  other  property  at  the 
White  Horse,  Fetter  Lane,  and  the  Swan  with  two  necks,  Lads  Lane, 
where  he  had  at  different  times  slept." 

"  Old  Bailey,  26th  Feb.  1819.  Edward  Lawrence  Colman,  late  purser 
in  His  Majesty's  navy,  was  convicted  on  an  indictment  for  embezzling 
his  employers  money— Mess  Lewis  and  Company,  Oxenden  street." 

"  March  18,  1819.  A  naval  court  martial  was  held  a  few  days  ago 
on  board  His  Majesty's  ship  Northumberland,  at  Chatham,  for  the  trial 
of  capt.  W.  E.  Wright,  of  the  navy,  for  smuggling.  He  was  convicted 
and  sentenced  to  be  dismissed  the  service." 

(The  foregoing  cases,  it  will  be  observed,  occurred  within  a  few 
months  of  each  other.  They  are  collected  by  a  casual  reader,  and  are 
probably  not  all,  of  the  same  nature,  that  took  place  during  the  same 
time.) 

"June,  1819.  The  Earl  of  Morton  having  lately  occasion  to  call  on 
Mr.  Geo.  Moncrieff,  manager  of  the  Union  Canal  Company  in  Edin 
burgh,  gave  him  the  lie.  A  boxing  match  ensued, /and  blue  eyes  and 
bloody  noses  were  the  results  on  both  sides.  Lord  Morton  was  high 
commissioner  of  the  general  assembly  which  sat  only  a  few  weeks  ago." 

"  Dec.  1818.  It  is  a  fact  that  Chief  Justice  Abbott,  (the  Lord  Chief 
Justice  of  England)  lately  threatened  to  adjourn  the  court  of  King's 
bench,  because  talloiv  candles  had  been  produced,  instead  of  wax 
lights." 

"  It  is  also  a  fact,  that  the  late  Justice  Gould,  when  on  the  circuit, 
once  threatened  to  remove  the  Essex  Assizes  from  Chelmsford  to  Col- 
Chester,  because  no  good  small  beer  could  be  found  in*the  former  town." 

"  In  a  debate  which  took  place  in  the  House  of  Commons,  April  2, 
1819,  on  the  circumstances  attending  the  arrest  of  general  Gourgand, 
sir  George  Cockburn  threw  out  an  accusation,  -whilst  speaking  in  his 
place,  against  Gourgaud,  by  relating  what  he  had  heard  from  him  at  St. 
Helena,  in  the  hasty  and  unguarded  moments  of  private  conversation.  "  The 
general,"  said  sir  George  Cockburn,  "  stated  to  me  that  he  had  great 
reason  to  complain  of  that  scoundrel  Bertrand,  for  so  these  persons 
in  the  habit  of  speaking  of  each  other." 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

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